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comparison, farmers typically grow about 180
million combined acres of corn and soybeans
annually.

Incentives .raise .water .concerns .on .
southern .Plains

According to USDA data, one of the most
popular places in the country for cover crops
is the Texas panhandle where they can protect
the land from wind erosion as well as sequester
carbon. But some farmers irrigate the cover
crops with water for the Ogallala Aquifer, which
is critical to agriculture for a significant portion
of the western Plains.
Farmers in much of the region have been
using water from the Ogallala faster than it is
replenished. While water levels in the aquifer
have risen in some areas, especially Nebraska,
they are “mostly in decline, namely from Kansas
southward,” according to the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration.

The Fourth National Climate Assessment
warned, “Current extraction for irrigation far
exceeds recharge in this aquifer, and climate
change places additional pressure on this critical
water resource,” the report said. Ogallala .Aquifer .depletion .(photo: .NOAA)

“Once that water is gone, it’s gone,” said Barry Rick Kellison, project director for the Texas
Evans, a cotton grower near Kress in the Texas Tech University-based Texas Alliance for Water
panhandle. Paying farmers to grower cover Conservation, believes it’s premature to know
crops that require irrigation could “create some how much impact a $25-per-acre payment
unintended consequences and actually speed would have on water demand, but he said a
decline of our aquifer,” he said. significant increase in irrigated cover crops
could pose a challenge for underground water
Shawn Wade, director of policy analysis and supplies.
research for Plains Cotton Growers, acknowl-
edged that growing cover crops is a “balancing Crop .insurance .barriers .remain; .
act” for the region’s farmers.
group .claims .data .to .justify .policy .
Still, he said cover crops provide important envi- improvement
ronmental benefits and that a $25-an-acre pay-
ment would help cover the cost. “Because there’s In the past, the federal crop insurance program
plenty of other things that can go wrong out here has been widely viewed as an impediment to
... it’s nice to have that level of investment and the adoption of cover crops. That perception is
encouragement to do those things,” he said. fading with changes in rules and guidance from

www.Agri-Pulse.com 41