That’s often a difficult request, as nutrients, especially nitrogen, are closely linked to crop productivity — and are therefore critical to a farm’s bottom line.

“In the current system that we have, it is a tough sell to ask these folks to potentially reduce their profitability and put their business at risk to help the Bay,” said Matt Houser, a social scientist who works for the Nature Conservancy and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.

“If we want to ask farmers to do what is certainly perceived as a risk to their business, but which is very important for environmental outcomes, we have to find some way to make that worth their while,” Houser said.

To do that, the Nature Conservancy is testing a program that rewards farmers for getting their crops to use nitrogen more efficiently, rather than strictly focusing on using less of it.

In fact, producing more crops may in some cases mean less pollution. The idea is that if more nitrogen is used by plants, less will be left on the fields to potentially run off into streams or sink into groundwater. And much of that nitrogen ends up in the Bay, where it fuels algae blooms and creates oxygen-starved “dead zones.”

The project, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will provide about 20 farmers with $1,000 vouchers to work with commercial agricultural advisors to develop and implement plans that make the nutrient use of their corn and wheat crops more efficient.

Those recommendations could mean applying less fertilizer or manure, but alternatively they could help ensure that it fuels plant growth more effectively — for instance, by changing when and how nutrients are added so they are more available to crops and less likely to be lost.

and less likely to

A farmer spreads liquid fertilizer on a spring corn field. (Katie Nichols/public domain)

It could also include a variety of other actions. For instance, if crop growth is limited by shortages of potash or potassium, the recommendations might be to address those problems — to both increase yields and take up more nitrogen. Another possibility includes renting new high-tech equipment that can plant more seeds in parts of a field that are highly productive and fewer in less productive areas. Or a farmer might use new fertilizer additives that are said to improve the nitrogen uptake of plants.

“We’re not telling them they have to do anything specific,” said Kristin Fisher, a scientist with the conservancy’s Chesapeake Bay Agriculture Program. “They decide what makes the most sense and they try it. As long as more [nitrogen] is taken up in the plant and harvested, that’s good for them, that’s good for water quality.”

The program starts this fall and aims to work with farmers who manage a combined 20,000 acres. It guarantees a minimum payment of $15 an acre if plants take up 60% or less of the applied nitrogen, even if conditions do not improve. That, in effect, ensures that if a new technique doesn’t work out or a drought reduces nitrogen uptake, everyone still gets something, Fisher said.

But payments increase for every 10% of improved nitrogen uptake, up to a maximum of $50 an acre.

That “pay for performance” approach is different from traditional conservation programs that pay for various practices, such as installing streamside buffers or planting nutrient absorbing cover crops, whether they are effective or not.

Joe Mayer of Willard Agri-Service, one of the businesses participating in the program, said he recognized that the program could mean less fertilizer sales. But, he said, the voucher payment allows them to work more closely with farmers to try new products, tests and services that could be more valuable for both the farmers and the company over the long run.

“Everybody sells nitrogen. The price is the price,” Mayer said. “But if I can bring some kind of technology, information management practice that brings twenty, thirty, forty more bushels of yield for the same amount of nitrogen, that product was worth a little more.”

An important aspect of the program, he said, is ensuring the minimal payment to farmers that reduces the risk of trying something new. “They’re going to make sure you weren’t hurt by doing something different,” Mayer said. “If you’re talking about something they’ve never done before, they’re going to need to do it a couple of times to get confidence.”

By putting the emphasis on efficiency, it also helps remove the negative connotation that “nutrient reduction” has with many farmers, said Eric Rosenbaum, an agronomist and owner of Rosetree Consulting in Pennsylvania. He is a member of the MidAtlantic 4R Nutrient Stewardship Association, an organization that promotes improved nutrient management and is a participant in the project.

“When you have programs that are solely based off a reduction, those programs are hard for farmers to swallow,” Rosenbaum said. “Nobody wants to risk a reduction in yield, or a reduction in revenue, or a reduction in profit.

“If you can reinvent that project to say, ‘go and produce as much as you possibly can, but the payment is based off of nitrogen use efficiency,’ it gives the farmers the flexibility to push production as much as they need to in order to meet their business goals and yet understand that that added production is probably not going to come from nitrogen.”

As a final part of the project, Houser will survey participating farmers to learn how well the program worked, how it might be improved and whether a program that incentivizes efficiency is likely to win widespread interest in the farm community.

“Farmers get the same payment per bushel of corn whether they’re growing it [well] or poorly in terms of conservation,” he said. “From an environmental standpoint right now, there are no premiums for sustainability.”

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