Payment Based on Performance

Cost share programs play an integral role in the adoption of conservation practices. Although cost share programs often ensure a practice is implemented, they don’t always follow-up to assess the performance of the practice. In our most recent webinar, Pay for Performance: Cost Share Alternative to Increase Nonpoint Source Pollution Reduction, Timothy Rosen shares new ways to incentivize conservation practices beyond installation. 

Currently, conservation practices often rely heavily on cost-share programs or grants that help farmers and landowners offset expenses. Despite the variety of cost share programs, areas like the Chesapeake Bay are not meeting water quality goals. As director of agriculture and restoration at ShoreRivers, Rosen understands the need for alternatives to the traditional cost share format. Through a study, it was found that incentive and voluntary programs are unlikely to result in meeting nutrient reduction goals.

Instead of a traditional cost share programs which would result in a single payment to the landowner to put a practice into place, organizations like ShoreRivers have been pushing for performance-based incentives. By monitoring for things like pounds of nitrogen reduced, acres implemented, or carbon sequestered, farmers can be further rewarded for the performance of their practices. To learn more about alternatives to cost share, watch this week’s full webinar. Also, tune in next as Sarah Castle discusses Social-Ecological Suitability of Agroforestry in the U.S. Midwest and check out archives for past webinars.

-Mitch Harting