Partially Completed Conservation Contracts Reveal On-Farm Practice Incentives

Under USDA’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), farmers and ranchers voluntarily agree to implement specific conservation practices in exchange for technical and financial assistance. Overall, most EQIP contracts were completed as planned—about 80 percent of conservation practices signed in 2010 were completed as originally specified by 2014. For the fifth of practices that were dropped, only about 40 percent occurred where the entire contract was cancelled or terminated.