Pennsylvania Resource Enhancement and Protection Program (REAP)

Pennsylvania's Resource Enhancement and Protection Program (REAP), administered by the State Conservation Commission within the PA Department of Agriculture, has offered state income-tax credits to farmers and landowners since 2007 for adopting best-management practices (BMPs) that cut nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment runoff into Chesapeake Bay tributaries and other Pennsylvania waterways.

Reduce agricultural nutrient and sediment pollution in Pennsylvania waterways by incentivising the adoption of BMPs through state tax credits.

Credits cover 50-90% of BMP costs - no-till and precision agricultural equipment, waste storage facilities, nutrient-management plans, cover crops, stream buffers - up to $250,000 per operation over a seven-year period, and can be applied against PA income tax for up to 15 years from issuance.

As of 2024, REAP has awarded more than $155 million in tax credits for over 8,500 projects on roughly 4,000 farms, with a further $13 million in new credits announced that year. The Commonwealth reports these projects have kept 6.5 million pounds of nitrogen, 350,000 pounds of phosphorus, and 350,000 tons of sediment out of Pennsylvania's streams and rivers since 2007.

REAP is one of the longest-running state-level agricultural payment-for-ecosystem-services/tax-incentive schemes in the United States, though the pollutant-reduction totals are program-modelled estimates reported by the state agency rather than independently audited measurements at each site.