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ICGA Precision Conservation Management PepsiCo & Bunge Project
The purpose of the Precision Conservation Management (PCM) program is 3-fold: 1) allow Illinois commodity crop farmers to voluntarily address regulatory issues and water quality concerns; 2) assist PCM partners wishing to demonstrate their efforts to support farmers (through PCM) and source sustainably-produced crop products; and 3) provide financial analysis of agronomic practices to help farmers make sound business decisions regarding implementation of conservation practices. PCM’s primary resource concerns are water quality, soil health, and greenhouse gases and we focus our efforts and resources toward assisting farmers with implementation of in-field management practices that most effectively address those concerns, namely nutrient management, reduced tillage and cover crops.
Active
Innovation
Engagement Targets
Notes: (1) I Minor fluctuations in the number of retained growers is expected from year to year. These fluctuations may be due to year-over-year crop rotation effects or other factors beyond the control of the project. Enrolled acres represent the total number of acres on an individual farm in a specific year. The ability to report enrolled acres is based on the Fieldprint Project Standard requirement that individual growers enrolled in projects enter at least 10% of the acres managed for a specific crop. (2) Entered acres represent the actual number of enrolled acres for which data is entered in the Fieldprint Platform for analysis.
Objectives
Enroll 400 farmers in PCM by 2023.
Currently working with 401 farmers across PCM, 27 of those are part of this project.
Demonstrate greater adoption of conservation practices by PCM farmers after they have participated in PCM for at least 5 years.
PCM develops confidential yearly reports of each farmer's environmental and financial strengths and weaknesses offering data summaries demonstrating average financial and environmental metrics for different management systems represented in its database comprising more than 1.6M acres of IL cropland from over 20,000 fields spanning 8 years. PCM also offers our cooperating farmers opportunities to receive financial and technical assistance for adopting new conservation practices. In 2022 alone, PCM Farmers implemented 235,212 acres of reduced tillage, 223,692 acres of in-season N application, and 74,862 acres of cover crops.
Demonstrate the on-farm financial impacts of adopting various conservation practices (reduced tillage, nutrient management, and cover crops) using publicly released annual PCM reports and other PCM analysis.
To learn more about PCM and to see the program summary (financials) and 7-year data highlights go to www.precisionconservation.org.
Through PCM partnerships, provide PCM farmers with financial and technical assistance to incentivize adoption of conservation practices with less risk to personal financial loss.
In 2022 we documented 235,212 acres of reduced tillage, 223,692 acres of in-season N application, and 74,862 acres of cover crops. PCM distributed approximately $1.5M in incentives through partnership with with PepsiCo in 2022 in exchange for these practices.
Participants
Project Lead Organization(s)
Illinois Corn Growers Association
(Full)
PepsiCo
(Full)
Project Details
Status
Active
Pathway
Innovation
Natural Resource Concern