The new federal farm bill promises a bumper crop of subsidies for farmers in Virginia and five other states to keep water pollution out of the Chesapeake Bay.

The legislation contains $188 million in new conservation spending specifically targeted to the region on top of enhancements to existing programs to stop soil erosion, contain animal manure, and reduce the use of chemical fertilizers, among other goals.

"That's pretty darn good," said Jack E. Frye, director of the state Division of Soil and Water Conservation, which has been leading state efforts to reduce the toll farming and livestock take on water quality.

The program goes into effect Oct. 1.

Frye estimates farmers are using so-called best-management practices advocated by state and federal conservation programs on 30 to 40 percent of Virginia's crop and pasture land.

Yet, problems associated with agriculture remain a major impediment in the bay region's 24-year campaign to restore the polluted Chesapeake Bay. Agriculture is the No. 1 source of water pollution in the 64,000-square-mile bay watershed, which also is plagued by a growing human population with its roads, fertilized lawns and wastewater treatment plants, according to the Environmental Protection Agency's Chesapeake Bay Program.

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Environmental groups and state lawmakers lobbied Congress hard the past few years for more federal spending to lighten farming's impact on the bay.

"We sent out the clear message that the bay region was worth the investment," said Marel Raub, the Pennsylvania director for a regional group of state legislators called the Chesapeake Bay Commission.

The new federal money spread over the five-year span of the farm bill will "at least double, more or less what we are already receiving," she said. That means farmers can look forward to roughly $160 million in farm conservation spending a year, compared with about $80 million in recent years.

The result could be more converts to low-impact farming techniques such as Lloyd Mundy, who farms the fertile land on both sides of the tidal Rappahannock River in eastern Virginia.

Initially attracted to U.S. Department of Agriculture conservation programs for the income they provided, he now notes other advantages.

"Once you grow accustomed to using those practices, it helps you in the long run grow cheaper and more efficiently," he said.

A case in point is the cover crop of rye he plants each fall that entitles him to a government payment of a few dollars per acre if he leaves it unharvested. The crop soaks up nutrients from the soil and holds them until they can be used by the subsequent crop of soybeans, which he plants after rolling the rye down with a crimper.

He expects the technique will allow him to use fewer herbicides to control weeds in his bean fields, while avoiding the added fuel costs of plowing or disking the land.

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Details of how the new farm bill will work in the bay region will not be known until USDA decides how its farm agencies will administer the new farm spending.

The legislation, however, directs that Virginia's Shenandoah River and three others -- the Potomac, the Susquehanna and the Patuxent -- will be the focus for the new spending, said Doug McKalip, spokesman for the Natural Resources and Conservation Service.

That federal agency has been a leading source of money to help farmers protect water quality.

Contact Lawrence Latané III at (804) 333-3461 or llatane@timesdispatch.com.