The 2008 federal Farm Bill authorized the Department of Agriculture to allocate $188 million in assistance to farmers over four years in order to address the top cause of pollution in the Chesapeake Bay — agricultural runoff.

In 2009, the first year of this four-year program, nearly $23 million was released for this purpose, according to the Chesapeake Bay Program. Funds were allocated to each of the watershed states for a variety of agricultural conservation practices.

The funding  seems to be a result of changes to the federal Farm Bill that the Chesapeake Bay Commission proposed to Congress in 2007. In a report titled “2007 Federal Farm Bill: Concepts for Conservation Reform in the Chesapeake Bay Region,” the Chesapeake Bay Commission asked Congress to adopt several recommendations for the upcoming renewal of the farm bill.  The authors reported that increasingly farmers were being asked to support and implement practices outside of their financial capabilities. The commission suggested that the Farm Bill should provide funding to help alleviate these costs.

In prior reports, the commission had concluded that if certain agricultural practices were implemented,  it could reduce the $19 billion price tag for a bay clean-up originally outlined in “Cost Of A Clean Bay.” The authors of that report wrote that the most cost effective ways of cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay involved changes to agricultural practices.

The 2008 Farm Bill calls for the $188 million to go to “Conservation Activities,” which are defined as “conservation systems, practices, or management measures designed to address a resource concern.” However, the bill doesn’t specify which conservation practices the money will fund.

On its Web site, Chesapeake Bay Program itemizes the types of agricultural conservation practices that are most common. The site lists these practices:

Nutrient management planning- plans designed to optimize crop production while reducing the amount of agricultural runoff.

Cover crops- certain crops that can be planted during the off seasons to soak up excess nutrients.

Animal and poultry litter reduction– strategies include proper ways of applying manure to croplands, developing manure-storage facilities and keeping livestock away from streams

Grass and forested buffers– program for planting grass and trees along farm fields and pastures

Conservation tillage– systems for leaving more areas of farm fields covered with crops or vegetation.