Having worked in the conservation ag sector for 25+ years, director of Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC), Ryan Heiniger, says that he has seen a lot of different types of cover crop/regenerative ag incentive and cost-share programs fail and succeed. But he feels that the current momentum around incentivizing conservation ag is bigger than it has ever been.

The USDA’s Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities program represents an investment of over $3.1 billion into U.S. agriculture. The statistics for the program huge: USDA selected 141 proposals from corporations, nonprofits and universities to study ways to increase climate-smart production practices for U.S. farmers and livestock producers.