Problem:  Farms in north Georgia needed to replant pastures 
following a severe drought.  The cost of replanting was high, and 
plowing would have led to soil erosion and stream contamination.  
No-till farming was the recommended way to replant; a no-till 
machine is faster and more efficient in terms of time and fuel 
than is conventional planting.  The no-till machinery, however, 
was too expensive for the small farmers of the area.

Proposed solution:  Since the farms were fairly small, the need 
for the equipment was not full-time.  As a result, the state 
developed a program to help provide the equipment.  The state 
bought the no-till drills, and then rented them to the farmers.  
They also hired operators to run the equipment.  The rents from 
the farmers cover the costs of fuel and of the operators, as well 
as providing for the maintenance of the equipment.

Evaluation:  The program has been a success.  Many farmers are now 
renting the state equipment to do no-till planting.  Yields have 
not declined; at the same time, fuel consumption has dropped 
sharply since no-till planting is far more efficient.  In 
addition, the hiring of operators has helped provide employment in 
the area.

Contact:  Paul Burks, Director, Governor's Office of Energy 
Resources, 254 Washington St, Suite 401.  Atlanta, GA 30334.

Citation:  "Innovations in State and Local Government 1991."  New 
York:  The Ford Foundation, 1991.  pp 6-7.

Keywords:  farming agriculture agricultural equipment

Disclaimer: The file contained in the box above or displayed in a separate window from a link in the box above is NOT owned nor implied to be owned by BeYoND THe iLLuSioN. Most files at BeYoND THe iLLuSioN are originally from public Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) which were popular in the days before the Internet or from gopher, web, and FTP sites from the early days of the Internet which no longer exist today. Essentially, all files were acquired from the public domain in one for or another.

However, there have been occasions when copyright protected material has appeared on BeYoND THe iLLuSIoN without permission of the copyright holder. In these instances, we have and will continue to remove the copyright protected file as soon as it is brought to our attention. This can now be done using our Report Copyright Material form. Fill out the form, and the webmaster will be notified of the situation.

There are also times when files found on BeYoND THe iLLuSioN have a real home somewhere else on the Internet. In these instances, we will gladly replace the file with a link to its true home whenever it is brought to our attention. If you know of the true home of any of these files, you can use our Report Original URL form to bring it yo our attention.