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Abstract Increasing the resilience of agricultural landscapes requires fundamental changes to the dominant commodity production model, including incorporating practices such as reduced tillage, cover cropping, and extended rotations that reduce soil disturbance while increasing biological diversity. Increasing farmer adoption of these conservation systems offers the potential to transform agriculture to a more vibrant, resilient system that protects soil, air, and water quality. Adoption of these resilience practices is not without significant challenges. This paper presents findings from a participatory effort to better understand these challenges and to develop solutions to help producers overcome them. Through repeated, facilitated discussions with farmers and agricultural and conservation professionals across the U.S. state of Michigan, we confronted the policy, economic, and structural barriers that are inhibiting broader adoption of conservation systems, as well as identified policies, programs, and markets that can support their adoption. What emerged was a complex picture and dynamic set of challenges at multiple spatial scales and across multiple domains. The primary themes emerging from these discussions were barriers and opportunities, including markets, social networks, human capital, and conservation programs. Exacerbating the technical, agronomic, and economic challenges farmers face at the farm level, there are a host of community constraints, market access and availability problems, climatic and environmental changes, and policies (governmental and corporate) that cross‐pressure farmers when it comes to making conservation decisions. Understanding these constraints is critical to developing programs, policies, and state and national investments that can drive adoption of conservation agriculture.
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Agricultural conservation networks in Iowa
Iowa's farmlands, celebrated for their remarkable agricultural productivity, are facing pressing environmental challenges, including soil erosion, waterway nitrogen pollution, and vulnerability to extreme weather events. These issues imperil the state's agricultural sector's long-term sustainability and economic stability. Despite substantial investments from governmental and non-governmental entities to encourage conservation practice use, adoption rates remain persistently low. In this report, we use quantitative, qualitative, and social network analysis on a sample of 38 farmers to understand how social networks shape their adoption of conservation practices. We analyze data through a systems framework and compare counties with high- and low-adoption of conservation practices to assess influences from the individual farmer level to the broader societal context. We conclude with a discussion of strategic implications to promote conservation adoption.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1828902
- PAR ID:
- 10530969
- Publisher / Repository:
- Colorado Statue University
- Date Published:
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Institution:
- Colorado State University
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract Reducing tillage is a key goal for conservation and regenerative agriculture, yet research has struggled to identify ways to increase the use of the practice among farmers. Recent scholarship has identified social capital as an important piece of the adoption puzzle. However, the ways in which farmers' social capital influences conservation practice use are seldom identified or explored. In this study, we tested the effects of three measures of social capital on the adoption of no‐till among 1,523 row crop farmers in the United States Corn Belt. Specifically, we operationalized the extent to which farmers' social networks, network trust, and community conservation norms affect intra‐individual processes and thus influence farmers' decisions regarding adoption. Our results identified key mechanisms for the promotion of conservation practices through social capital. Subjective conservation norms emerged as a main pathway through which farmers' social capital influenced their use of no‐till, indicating that networks, network trust, and community norms can increase adoption through affective paths. We conclude that academic research and policy experts should continue to situate farmers as social actors and pay heed to the norms and cultural expectations surrounding agricultural conservation practices.more » « less
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While conservation practices promote soil health and reduce the negative environmental effects from agricultural production, their adoption rates are generally low. To facilitate farmer adoption, we carried out a survey to identify potential challenges faced by farmers regarding conservation tillage and cover crop adoption in the western margin of the US Corn Belt. We found farmers' top two concerns regarding conservation tillage were delayed planting, caused by slow soil warming in spring, and increased dependence on herbicide and fungicides. Narrow planting window and lack of time/labor were perceived by farmers as the two primary challenges for cover crop adoption. Some sense of place factors, including the commonly included dimensions of attachment, identity and dependence, played a role in farmers' perceived challenges. For example, respondents more economically dependent on farming perceived greater challenges. We found that farmers' challenge perceptions regarding reduced yield and lack of time/labor significantly decreased as years of usage increased, implying that time and experience could dilute some challenges faced by farmers. Our findings indicate that social network use, technical guidance and economic subsidies are likely to address the concerns of farmers and facilitate their adoption of conservation practices.more » « less
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Abstract Granular temporal and spatial scale observations of conservation practices are essential for identifying changes in the production systems that improve soil health and water quality and inform long-term agricultural research and adaptive policy development. In this study, we demonstrate an innovative use of farmer practice survey data and what can be uniquely known from a detailed survey that targets specific farm groups with a regional focus over multiple consecutive years. Using three years of survey data ( n = 3914 respondents), we describe prevailing crop rotation, tillage, and cover crop practice use in four Midwestern US states. Like national metrics, the results confirm dominant practices across the landscape, including corn-soybean rotation, little use of continuous no-till, and the limited use of cover crops. Our detailed regional survey further reveals differences by state for no-till and cover crop adoption rates that were not captured in federal datasets. For example, 66% of sampled acreage in the Midwest has corn and soybean rotation, with Illinois having the highest rate (72%) and Michigan the lowest (41%). In 2018, 20% of the corn acreage and 38% of the soybean acreage were in no-till, and 13% of the corn acres and 9% of the soybean acres were planted with a cover crop. Cover crop adoption rates fluctuate from year to year. Results demonstrate the value of a farmer survey at state scales over multiple years in complementing federal statistics and monitoring state and yearly differences in practice adoption. Agricultural policies and industry heavily depend on accurate and timely information that reflects spatial and temporal dynamics. We recommend building an agricultural information exchange and workforce that integrates diverse data sources with complementary strengths to provide a greater understanding of agricultural management practices that provide baseline data for prevailing practices.more » « less
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