An official website of the United States government
Abstract: Improved soil health (SH) is critical in achieving agricultural resilience and miti- gating climate risks. Whether SH management practices are widely used depends greatly on US farmers’ voluntary decision-making. Toward understanding this point, much research has addressed factors that contribute to the adoption (or lack thereof) of SH-promoting practices, but less is known in terms of farmers’ perceptions of SH itself and the corresponding man- agement practices they see as related to achieving SH. To offer introductory insight on this knowledge gap and support better buy-in from farmers toward positive SH outcomes, our research draws upon qualitative interviews with 91 farmers across three key agricultural states in the Midwest (Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan). We develop a more detailed understanding of farmers’ views on SH, and why and how they manage for it. Nearly all interviewed farmers were familiar with the concept of SH and most viewed it favorably. A minority of farmers lacked familiarity with the term “SH” yet still managed for it. Skeptics of SH largely cited uncertainties related to over-zealous messaging by proponents of SH or lack of evidence for the return on investment of SH practices. Overall, farmers’ perceptions of SH largely aligned with the scientific community’s understanding of soils being a dynamic system, though farmers most dominantly defined SH by its biological component. Farmers perceived a host of benefits of SH, most often noting benefits to production, followed by improvements in physical aspects of the soil such as erosion control and increased organic matter. Notably, pro- duction and sustainability benefits were often cited together, suggesting that SH management is increasingly seen as a “win-win” by farmers. Additionally, we found that many farmers view themselves as active participants in SH outcomes and believe their management choices are indicators of positive SH outcomes, regardless of the practices they employ, including some strategies (such as tillage or tile drainage) that do not align with scientifically documented approaches to improving SH. Our findings show that farmers report engaging in an array of SH management practices that target both biotic and abiotic components of soils, and often use multiple practices in tandem to promote SH on their farms. Achieving better SH in agricultural production in the future will require engaging farmers in SH management by tailoring outreach and communication strategies to align with the perspectives and language farmers themselves use to conceptualize SH.
more »
« less
Human-managed soils and soil-managed humans: An interactive account of perspectival realism for soil management
What is philosophically interesting about how soil is managed and categorized? This paper begins by investigating how different soil ontologies develop and change as they are used within different social communities. Analyzing empirical evidence from soil science, ethnopedology, sociology, and agricultural extension reveals that efforts to categorize soil are not limited to current scientific soil classifications but also include those based in social ontologies of soil. I examine three of these soil social ontologies: (1) local and Indigenous classifications farmers and farming communities use to conceptualize their relationships with soil in their fields; (2) categorizations ascribed to farmers in virtue of their agricultural goals and economic priorities relied upon in sociological research; and (3) federal agency classifications of land capability employed by agricultural scientists. Studying the interplay of these social ontologies shows how assessing soil properties and capabilities are the result of previous agricultural strategies informed by culture, agroecological history, weather, soil biodiversity, crop rotation, and the goals held by decision-makers. The paper then identifies the soil relationships and interactions that constitute ontology-making activities. Building on recent work, I outline a novel interactive account of perspectival realism grounded in agricultural extension research and ethnopedological data that captures the haptic nature of farmers’ soil strategies. This interactive account explains how ontologies are chosen, why they are chosen, and how they interact and inform soil management decision-making. The paper concludes by examining the values laden in these ontologies and those which are causally implicated in the choice of soil management strategies.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 2240749
- PAR ID:
- 10526834
- Publisher / Repository:
- Journal of Social Ontology
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of social ontology
- Edition / Version:
- https://doi.org/10.25365/jso-2024-7690
- Volume:
- 10
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 2196-9663
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 80-109
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Excess agricultural nitrogen (N) in the environment is a persistent problem in the United States and other regions of the world, contributing to water and air pollution, as well as to climate change. Efforts to reduce N from agricultural sources largely rely on voluntary efforts by farmers to reduce inputs and improve uptake by crops. However, research has failed to comprehensively depict farmers' N decision-making processes, particularly when engaging with uncertainty. Through analysis of in-depth interviews with US corn (Zea mays L.) growers, this study reveals how farmers experience and process numerous uncertainties associated with N management, such as weather variability, crop and input price volatility, lack of knowledge about biophysical systems, and the possibility of underapplying or overapplying. Farmers used one of two general decision-making management strategies to address these uncertainties: heuristic-based or data-intensive decision-making. Heuristic-based decision-making involves minimizing sources of uncertainty and reliance on heuristics and personal previous experiences, while data-intensive decision-making is the increased use of field- and farm-scale data collection and management, as well as increased management effort within a given growing season.more » « less
-
Improving agricultural production relies on the decisions and actions of farmers and land managers, highlighting the importance of efficient soil monitoring techniques for better resource management and reduced environmental impacts. Despite considerable advancements in soil sensors, their traditional bulky counterparts cause difficulty in widespread adoption and large-scale deployment. Printed electronics emerge as a promising technology, offering flexibility in device design, cost-effectiveness for mass production, and a compact footprint suitable for versatile deployment platforms. This review overviews how printed sensors are used in monitoring soil parameters through electrochemical sensing mechanisms, enabling direct measurement of nutrients, moisture content, pH value, and others. Notably, printed sensors address scalability and cost concerns in fabrication, making them suitable for deployment across large crop fields. Additionally, seamlessly integrating printed sensors with printed antenna units or traditional integrated circuits can facilitate comprehensive functionality for real-time data collection and communication. This real-time information empowers informed decision-making, optimizes resource management, and enhances crop yield. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of recent work related to printed electrochemical soil sensors, ultimately providing insight into future research directions that can enable widespread adoption of precision agriculture technologies.more » « less
-
Local food systems, in which consumers source food from nearby farmers, offer a sustainable alternative to the modern industrial food supply system. However, scaling up local food production to meet consumer demand will require farmers to allocate more land to this purpose. This paper describes an agent-based model that represents commodity-producing Iowa farmers and their decisions about converting some of their acreage to specialty crop production for local consumption. Farmer agents’ land-use decisions are informed by messages passed to them via their social connections with other farmers in their communities and messages from agricultural extension agents. Preliminary experimentation revealed that leveraging extension agents to increase the frequency and strength of messages to farmers in support of local food production has a modest positive impact on adoption. By itself, however, this intervention is unlikely to yield significant improvements to food system sustainability.more » « less
-
Abstract Restoring ecosystems requires the re-establishment of diverse soil microbial communities that drive critical ecosystem functions. In grasslands, restoration and management require the application of disturbances like fire and grazing. Disturbances can shape microbial taxonomic composition and potentially functional composition as well. We characterized taxonomic and functional gene composition of soil communities using whole genome shotgun metagenomic sequencing to determine how restored soil communities differed from pre-restoration agricultural soils and original remnant soils, how management affects soil microbes, and whether restoration and management affect the number of microbial genes associated with carbohydrate degradation. We found distinct differences in both taxonomic and functional diversity and composition among restored, remnant, and agricultural soils. Remnant soils had low taxonomic and functional richness and diversity, as well as distinct composition, indicating that restoration of agricultural soils does not re-create soil microbial communities that match remnants. Prescribed fire management increased functional diversity, which also was higher in more recently planted restorations. Finally, restored and post-fire soils included high abundances of genes encoding cellulose-degrading enzymes, so restorations and their ongoing management can potentially support functions important in carbon cycling.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- The DOI is not currently available.
