TY - JOUR
T1 - Adoption of agricultural conservation practices in the United States
T2 - Evidence from 35 years of quantitative literature
AU - Prokopy, L. S.
AU - Floress, K.
AU - Arbuckle, J. G.
AU - Church, S. P.
AU - Eanes, F. R.
AU - Gao, Y.
AU - Gramig, B. M.
AU - Ranjan, P.
AU - Singh, A. S.
N1 - We are grateful for financial support from the Walton Family Foundation through Grant Number: 2016-2108.We are also grateful for financial support from USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) multi-state Hatch project NC1190: Catalysts for Water Resources Protection and Restoration: Applied Social Science Research and USDA NIFA multi-state Hatch project W4133: Costs and Benefits of Natural Resources on Public and Private Lands.We extend our sincere thanks to the many people who heard us present early versions of this work and provided critical feedback.We are extremely grateful to the two anonymous reviewers and the associate editor who helped us tell our story more coherently. Enormous thanks to Junyu Lu, a lecturer in the School of Community Resources and Development at Arizona State University,Tempe,Arizona, whose careful review of and replication of this paper’s results identified a coding issue before the paper went to press.Thanks to all the authors who published this body of work over the last 35 years and enabled us to write this review.And, finally, we owe a debt of gratitude to the 42,229 farmers included in the “Final Sample Size” for the 93 included quantitative studies who provided all the original data.
We are grateful for financial support from the Walton Family Foundation through Grant Number: 2016-2108.We are also grateful for financial support from USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) multi-state Hatch project NC1190: Catalysts for Water Resources Protection and Restoration: Applied Social Science Research and USDA NIFA multi-state Hatch project W4133: Costs and Benefits of Natural Resources on Public and Private Lands.We extend our sincere thanks to the many people who heard us present early versions of this work and provided critical feedback.We are extremely grateful to the two anonymous reviewers and the associate editor who helped us tell our story more coherently. Enormous thanks to Junyu Lu, a lecturer in the School of Community Resources and Development at Arizona State University,Tempe,Arizona, whose careful review of and replication of this paper?s results identified a coding issue before the paper went to press.Thanks to all the authors who published this body of work over the last 35 years and enabled us to write this review. And, finally, we owe a debt of gratitude to the 42,229 farmers included in the ?Final Sample Size? for the 93 included quantitative studies who provided all the original data.
PY - 2019/9
Y1 - 2019/9
N2 - This is a comprehensive review of all published, quantitative studies focused on adoption of agricultural conservation practices in the United States between 1982 and 2017. This review finds that, taken as a whole, few independent variables have a consistent statistically significant relationship with adoption. Analyses showed that variables positively associated with adoption include the farmer self-identifying primarily as stewardship motivated or otherwise nonfinancially motivated, environmental attitudes, a positive attitude toward the particular program or practice, previous adoption of other conservation practices, seeking and using information, awareness of programs or practices, vulnerable land, greater farm size, higher levels of income and formal education, engaging in marketing arrangements, and positive yield impact expected. Some variables often thought to be important, such as land tenure, did not emerge as consistently important in this cross-study review. Other variables, such as farmers’ sense of place, training, presence of institutional conditions supporting adoption, and the role of collective decision making are not measured in enough studies to draw conclusions but potentially have a relationship with adoption decisions. Implications for how to promote conservation adoption and directions for future research are discussed. Because positive attitudes and awareness of conservation programs or practices are positive predictors of adoption, practitioners should share benefits of specific practices and programs and leverage existing practice adoption. Further work to explore relationships between conservation adoption and the role of farmer identity, nuances of land tenure, and the influence of structural factors is needed. Moreover, we suggest that future research should focus on the impact of different messages and avenues of reaching farmers in order to continue to inform conservation practices. Future research should consider both individual and institutional factors that facilitate and constrain adoption.
AB - This is a comprehensive review of all published, quantitative studies focused on adoption of agricultural conservation practices in the United States between 1982 and 2017. This review finds that, taken as a whole, few independent variables have a consistent statistically significant relationship with adoption. Analyses showed that variables positively associated with adoption include the farmer self-identifying primarily as stewardship motivated or otherwise nonfinancially motivated, environmental attitudes, a positive attitude toward the particular program or practice, previous adoption of other conservation practices, seeking and using information, awareness of programs or practices, vulnerable land, greater farm size, higher levels of income and formal education, engaging in marketing arrangements, and positive yield impact expected. Some variables often thought to be important, such as land tenure, did not emerge as consistently important in this cross-study review. Other variables, such as farmers’ sense of place, training, presence of institutional conditions supporting adoption, and the role of collective decision making are not measured in enough studies to draw conclusions but potentially have a relationship with adoption decisions. Implications for how to promote conservation adoption and directions for future research are discussed. Because positive attitudes and awareness of conservation programs or practices are positive predictors of adoption, practitioners should share benefits of specific practices and programs and leverage existing practice adoption. Further work to explore relationships between conservation adoption and the role of farmer identity, nuances of land tenure, and the influence of structural factors is needed. Moreover, we suggest that future research should focus on the impact of different messages and avenues of reaching farmers in order to continue to inform conservation practices. Future research should consider both individual and institutional factors that facilitate and constrain adoption.
KW - Agricultural Best Management Practice (BMP
KW - Conservation programs
KW - Outreach
KW - Program design
KW - Social indicators
KW - Vote count
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U2 - 10.2489/jswc.74.5.520
DO - 10.2489/jswc.74.5.520
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85070857159
SN - 0022-4561
VL - 74
SP - 520
EP - 534
JO - Journal of Soil and Water Conservation
JF - Journal of Soil and Water Conservation
IS - 5
ER -