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Primary Project Goal: To provide extension and education programs that can facilitate the adoption of performance-based incentives for improving the technical and cost-effectiveness of agricultural nonpoint source (NPS) programs.<P> Project Objectives: <OL> <LI> Strengthen extension and education programs for the adoption of performance-based incentives <LI> Facilitate adoption of performance-based incentives in the Choptank River Watershed <LI> Conduct Education and Outreach throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed. </OL>Expected Outputs: <OL> <LI> An assessment of stakeholder views of barriers to the adoption of performance-based incentives and a region-wide education program (2/2009) <LI> Development and implementation of extension and education activities for the Chesapeake Bay Watershed (9/2009) <LI> Established demonstration site for education and outreach activities (9/2009) <LI> An assessment of baseline farm-level performance for participating producers (1/2010) <LI> Performance-based incentive payments to selected producers (11/2009 and 11/2010)<LI> Assistance to producers in selecting good business decisions for pollution control (3/2010 and 3/2011) <LI> An assessment of changes in farm-level performance (10/2010 and 9/2011) <LI> Field days in the demonstration watershed to educate stakeholders from around the region (9/2009, 9/2010, 9/2011) <LI> An assessment of project impacts through on-going internal evaluation (9/2011)
Non-Technical Summary: Performance-based incentives reward farmers for achieving specified environmental outcomes, often measured at the farm-level (e.g. estimated annual P or N loss from the farm) and provide the flexibility and incentive to achieve outcomes in the least costly manner. As such, performance-based incentives are a strategy to (1) to create stronger linkages between farmer actions and field-specific pollution reductions, (2) increase the cost-effectiveness of current nonpoint source (NPS) pollution control programs, (3) increase farm viability by using the profit-motive to induce farmers to find cost-effective solutions for their working lands. This project will develop and pilot-test farm-level performance-based incentives for agricultural pollution controlin the Choptank River watershed of Maryland?s Eastern Shore and will conduct education and outreach throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed. <P> Approach: This project will use a previously developed participatory method for developing a specific approach for the use of performance-based incentives in the Choptank River watershed. This process is likely to affect changes in knowledge and understanding among stakeholders related to agricultural pollution control. The approach will be pilot-tested on a limited scale with selected producers in the watershed. The pilot-testing site (a sub-basin of the Choptank River watershed) will then become a demonstration site for education and outreach throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed.