An Efficient Cost-Sharing Program to Reduce Nonpoint-Source Contamination: Theory and an Application to Groundwater Contamination

C.S. Kim, Glen D. Schaible, Stan G. Daberkow

Elsewhere No. (0102), April 2000

In the 1996 Farm Act the U.S. Congress established the agricultural cost-share program known as the Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP). In doing so, Congress recognized the public’s increased concern about agricultural nonpoint-source contamination, and the importance of using cost-sharing programs to reduce this contamination source by encouraging producers to adopt resource-conserving and/or environmentally-beneficial agricultural practices. This paper examines rigorously the economics of cost-sharing improved irrigation technologies to reduce agricultural nonpoint-source contamination.

Keywords: water quality, water conservation, irrigation technologies, groundwater contamination, cost-sharing, Economic Research Service, ERS, USDA, U.S. Department of Agriculture

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Updated date: April 2000