This past week at the 2016 Farm Progress Show, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey and leaders of the Iowa Agriculture Water Alliance (IAWA) announced a Conservation Infrastructure Initiative to help drive water quality improvement. The new initiative seeks to advance the goals of the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy.

Northey and the IAWA leaders who spoke at the press conference said they will be working with a broad cross-section of leaders within and outside of the ag industry to help identify potential economic development opportunities associated with water quality protection and improvement.

NEW INITIATVE: Iowa’s water quality challenges could create economic development opportunities as farmers, ag businesses and others look at spending up to $1.2 billion annually to cut rural and urban runoff, says Dan Foor, chair of the Iowa Agricultural Water Alliance’s new Business Council.

“Many of the ag businesses located in Iowa and doing business here are already leading the way in integrating water quality efforts into their business and bringing new tools to farmers to help them keep nutrients on their farms. This new effort is focused on seeing if there are opportunities to support additional business development as we continue to scale-up efforts to improve water quality and maintain the tremendous productivity of Iowa agriculture,” Northey said.

This effort will focus on finding the key economic drivers
The new initiative has two objectives. First, the Conservation Infrastructure Initiative will identify current gaps in conservation/business infrastructure. Second, it will develop an action plan focused on accelerated implementation of conservation practices to improve and protect water quality. The action plan will focus on identifying economic drivers and market-based solutions to improve water quality and quantify both the public and private benefits associated with successful implementation of water quality practices.

Northey will serve as co-chair of the new conservation infrastructure effort, along with Ray Gaesser, a farmer from Corning in southwest Iowa who is past-president?of the American Soybean Association and also the Iowa Soybean Association.

Preserving and improving Iowa’s resources benefits everyone
“Preserving and enhancing Iowa's resources, including water quality, benefits everyone,” Gaesser says. “This is really figuring out the additional expertise and financing needed to help farmers continue improving water quality while meeting the global needs of feeding people. Adapting these practices requires continual research, inspiration, education and action. There's opportunity in doing this, opportunity for farmers and for the business community.”

Also at the press conference at the Farm Progress Show, IAWA leaders announced the launch of the IAWA Business Council. IAWA executive director Sean McMahon said the business council will play a key role in helping shape the conservation infrastructure strategy along with input from the existing IAWA advisory council. “We look forward to partnering with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and our many other highly valued partners to help align public and private efforts and identify business opportunities to improve Iowa’s water quality and strengthen rural communities,” says McMahon.

New conservation infrastructure strategy will identify opportunities
Dan Foor, CEO of La Crosse Seed Company, is chairman of the newly-created IAWA Business Council. Northey, Gaesser, McMahon and Foor spoke at the press conference. “The goal of this new conservation infrastructure strategy is to help identify potential economic development opportunities from water quality improvement and protection efforts,” says Foor.

IAWA leaders say this new effort could create economic development opportunities as farmers and ag businesses look ahead to spend as much as $1.2 billion annually to cut rural and urban runoff. The goal of the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy is to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus losses, primarily from farms drained through underground tile systems.

Businesses can help reach goals of Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy
McMahon says the state needs a significant investment to reach the goals of the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy. This voluntary plan is designed to cut by 45% the state’s rural and urban nitrogen and phosphorus losses that contribute to the “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico. He says the alliance’s initiative will help identify ways the private sector can help the state reach the goals set by the nutrient reduction strategy.

For example, McMahon says the strategy calls for building 7,000 conservation reserve enhancement wetlands, but the state now only has about 70. And Iowa has about 60 saturated buffers and bioreactors—edge of field practices that cut nutrient losses—but Iowa needs 120,000 of these structures to meet the strategy’s goals. Also, cover crop acreage needs to be greatly expanded. “How does Iowa go from about a half a million acres of cover crops planted this year to get to the 12 million to 17 million acres that we need to meet the strategy’s goals?” he asks.

How can we attract more private sector investment in conservation?
McMahon says IAWA will look at several questions: “What are the business opportunities as we scale up conservation practices? How do we build upon public taxpayer-funded programs and also attract additional private sector investment? And what are the economic development opportunities that can create jobs, and strengthen Iowa’s rural communities along the way?”

The conservation infrastructure initiative will be led by Northey and Gaesser as co-chairs, while the business council is chaired by Foor and will help guide the IAWA effort.

Trying to encourage more farmers to use more of these practices
Northey says about 1,900 farmers already are participating in conservation cost-share practices that are part of the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy. The $3.8 million state-funded program encourages use of practices such as planting cover crops, using more no-till or strip-till practices that can cut nutrient losses from farm fields. Farmers have to match the state cost-share money in order to be eligible to receive it.

“We were a little nervous about whether we would see the same kind of participation in conservation programs continue by farmers this year, considering the low prices for corn and soybeans and tougher economic challenges,” Northey says. “But we are seeing more producers sign up for the cost-share program and also using more conservation practices paid for out of their own pocket, despite these tough economic times for farmers.”

The IAWA Business Council includes representatives from these organizations: AgSolver, Agri-Drain Corporation, Agrium, DuPont Pioneer, Ecosystem Services Exchange, Farm Nutrients, La Crosse Seed, Peoples Company, Syngenta Seed, The Mosaic Company, Verdesian Life Sciences and WinField.

The IAWA and its Business Council and its Advisory Council, along with the Conservation Infrastructure Initiative, seek to increase the pace and scale of farmer-led efforts to improve water quality. To learn more or get involved, contact Sean McMahon at [email protected] or call him at 515-334-1480.