Performance-based Environmental
Management
The Heartland
Regional Water Coordination Initiative,
funded through a competitive grant from
the NIFA National Integrated Water Program,
is working with the Iowa Farm Bureau and
agricultural operators and landowners to
develop a set of performance-based measures
for agriculture aimed at improving water
quality. These performance measures focus
on two sets of goals: watershed-wide and
individual farm management.
At the watershed scale, goals include:
- increasing the abundance and diversity
of fish and wildlife;
- expanding recreational use of water resources,
and;
- reducing pollutants.
Farm management level goals include:
- improving soil quality;
- reducing erosion, and;
- decreasing nutrient losses from agricultural
lands.
In support of this, Iowa State University
published “Performance-based
Environmental Management, The Hewitt Creek
Model,” providing examples of crop
year incentives for on-farm activities and
practices, along with performance-based watershed
management indices linked to incentive payment
structures.
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