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Economics Of Agricultural Soil Carbon Sequestration In The Northern Great Plains

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  • Antle, John M.
  • Capalbo, Susan Marie
  • Mooney, Sian
  • Elliott, Edward T.
  • Paustian, Keith H.

Abstract

Under the Kyoto protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change the United States is charged with reducing emissions of greenhouse gases to seven percent below their 1990 levels by the period 2008-2012. These reductions could be met from many industries including agriculture. In this paper, an economic simulation model is linked to the CENTURY ecosystem model to quantify the economic efficiency of policies that might be used to sequester carbon (C) in agricultural soils in the Northern Great Plains region. Model outputs are combined to assess the costs of inducing changes in equilibrium levels of soil C through three types of policies. The first is a CRP-style policy that provides producers with per-acre payments for converting crop-land to permanent grass; the second is a policy that provides per-acre payments to all farmers that use continuous cropping, regardless of the land's cropping history; the third is a policy that provides per-acre payments for the use of continuous cropping only on land units that had previously been in a crop/fallow rotation. The analysis shows that a CRP-style policy is found to be an inefficient means to increase soil C resulting in costs that typically exceed $100 per MT (metric ton) of C. In contrast, payments to adopt continuous cropping were found to produce increases in soil C for between $5 to $70/MT depending on the geographic area and degree of targeting of the payments. The most efficient, lowest cost policy is achieved when payments are targeted to land that was previously in a crop/fallow rotation. In this range, soil C sequestration appears to be competitive with C sequestered from other sources.

Suggested Citation

  • Antle, John M. & Capalbo, Susan Marie & Mooney, Sian & Elliott, Edward T. & Paustian, Keith H., 2000. "Economics Of Agricultural Soil Carbon Sequestration In The Northern Great Plains," 2000 Annual meeting, July 30-August 2, Tampa, FL 21879, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
  • Handle: RePEc:ags:aaea00:21879
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.21879
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Douglas J. Miller, 1999. "An Econometric Analysis of the Costs of Sequestering Carbon in Forests," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 81(4), pages 812-824.
    2. Antle, John M. & Capalbo, Susan M. & Johnson, James B. & Miljkovic, Dragan, 1999. "The Kyoto Protocol: Economic Effects of Energy Prices on Northern Plains Dryland Grain Production," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 28(1), pages 96-105, April.
    3. John M. Antle & Susan M. Capalbo, 2001. "Econometric-Process Models for Integrated Assessment of Agricultural Production Systems," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 83(2), pages 389-401.
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    6. Feather, Peter & Hellerstein, Daniel & Hansen, LeRoy T., 1999. "Economic Valuation of Environmental Benefits and the Targeting of Conservation Programs: The Case of the CRP," Agricultural Economic Reports 34027, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
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    Cited by:

    1. Bruce A. Babcock & John C. Beghin & Michael D. Duffy & Hongli Feng & Brent Hueth & Catherine L. Kling & Lyubov A. Kurkalova & Uwe A. Schneider & Silvia Secchi & Quinn Weninger & Jinhua Zhao, 2001. "Conservation Payments: Challenges in Design and Implementation," Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) Publications 01-bp34, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University.
    2. GR Pautsch & LA Kurkalova & BA Babcock & CL Kling, 2001. "The Efficiency Of Sequestering Carbon In Agricultural Soils," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 19(2), pages 123-134, April.
    3. Hongli Feng & Jinhua Zhao & Catherine L. Kling, 2000. "Towards Implementing Carbon Markets in Agriculture," Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) Publications 00-wp261, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University.

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