SELECTED GOVERNMENT POLICIES FOR ENCOURAGING SOIL CONSERVATION ON ONTARIO CASH-CROPPING FARMS

As well as causing on-farm costs, land degradation typically causes co nsiderable off-farm costs through sedimentation and pollution of downs tream watercourses. In many cases, farmers who voluntarily adopt conse rvation techniques find that the costs exceed the benefits at the farm level, even though overall benefits to society are generally greater than the costs. Public policies, in the form of regulation or taxation of farmers or subsidies to farmers, may be called upon to encourage m ore farmers to adopt conservation measures. Although effective in curt ailing land degradation, both regulatory limits to soil erosion and ta xation of eroded soil would impose significant financial hardships on many farmers. Subsidizing the cost of conservation tillage equipment o r the cost of producing conservation crops such as alfalfa would be mo re appealing for farmers financially and