Maryland Cover Crop Program

Administered by the Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) and funded through the state's Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund and Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund, the Cover Crop Program pays farmers a per-acre incentive — a $35/acre base rate, with add-ons up to $65/acre for early incorporation and preferred species, or a reduced $25/acre where fall manure is applied — to plant fall/winter cover crops purely for nutrient-scavenging and erosion control. Enrollment requires a minimum of 10 acres and at least 80% germination, with sign-up each June–July.

Participation and funding fluctuate year to year: about 1,274 farms enrolled in the 2018–19 season (down roughly 10% year-on-year), with actual planted acreage falling to below 60% of registered acreage that year, while the 2023–24 season saw close to 450,000–500,000 acres planted using over $30 million in cost-share grants — one of the largest sign-ups in the program's history, with Maryland reporting the highest cover-crop adoption rate of any US state per USDA data. State funding has run roughly $22–25.5 million per year under Maryland's Phase III Chesapeake Bay Watershed Implementation Plan, which targets about 470,000 acres.

Maryland attributes measurable water-quality progress in part to the program and related best-management practices: phosphorus loads fell nearly 10% (from 4.01 to 3.62 million lbs/year), already meeting the 2025 Bay TMDL target, while nitrogen loads fell over 9% (from 58.1 to 52.7 million lbs/year), still roughly 6.9 million lbs short of target. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation has argued that permanent measures such as riparian forest buffers are more cost-effective long-term nutrient solutions than annually re-funded cover-crop payments — a documented critique of the program's underlying model.

Read the full analysis: https://mda.maryland.gov/resource_conservation/pages/cover_crop.aspx