TY - JOUR
T1 - Engagement with conservation tillage shaped by “good farmer” identity
AU - Lavoie, Avery
AU - Wardropper, Chloe B.
N1 - Funding Information:
CT systems are increasingly becoming a part of mainstream agriculture, especially with the transition away from plow culture (Schillinger and Papendick ; Bossange et al. ). The transition to CT systems is supported by favorable economic outcomes. However, farmers’ engagement with CT systems is also shaped by valued cultural and social capital. The transition to CT systems may support the sustained and future adoption of other conservation practices, like cover crops, given that the observation of soil erosion and management can act as a catalyst for sustained adoption behavior (Roesch Mc-Nally et al. ; Coughenour ). However, there is concern that CT, and especially no-till systems, do not give farmers the flexibility to manage weeds in ways that are practical for their operation. A number of farmers expressed concern about increased weed proliferation and the potential for increased herbicide resistance occurring within no-till systems. Future work needs to examine how increased adoption of CT systems and good farmer narrative may translate over to how farmers manage herbicide-resistant weeds.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - The “good farmer” literature, grounded in Bourdieu’s concepts of field, habitus, and capital, has provided researchers with a socio-cultural approach to understanding conservation adoption behavior. The good farmer literature suggests that conservation practices may not be widely accepted because they do not allow farmers to demonstrate symbols of good farming. This lens has not been applied to the adoption of conservation tillage (CT), a practice increasingly used to improve conservation outcomes, farming efficiency and crop productivity. Drawing from in-depth interviews (n = 28) with dryland wheat farmers in the US inland Pacific Northwest (iPNW), this research seeks to understand how farmers’ engagement with CT is shaped by identity as a good farmer. Some farmers also sought to bolster social capital through CT by maintaining and strengthening relationships with peers, landowners, and future generations. We further found that engagement with CT provided a link for some participants between productivist values and stewardship values within the good farming identity. The findings from this research may help contextualize the barriers and opportunities to the adoption of agricultural conservation practices within farmer-specific social, cultural, and economic forms of capital.
AB - The “good farmer” literature, grounded in Bourdieu’s concepts of field, habitus, and capital, has provided researchers with a socio-cultural approach to understanding conservation adoption behavior. The good farmer literature suggests that conservation practices may not be widely accepted because they do not allow farmers to demonstrate symbols of good farming. This lens has not been applied to the adoption of conservation tillage (CT), a practice increasingly used to improve conservation outcomes, farming efficiency and crop productivity. Drawing from in-depth interviews (n = 28) with dryland wheat farmers in the US inland Pacific Northwest (iPNW), this research seeks to understand how farmers’ engagement with CT is shaped by identity as a good farmer. Some farmers also sought to bolster social capital through CT by maintaining and strengthening relationships with peers, landowners, and future generations. We further found that engagement with CT provided a link for some participants between productivist values and stewardship values within the good farming identity. The findings from this research may help contextualize the barriers and opportunities to the adoption of agricultural conservation practices within farmer-specific social, cultural, and economic forms of capital.
KW - Agricultural conservation adoption
KW - Bourdieu
KW - Conservation tillage
KW - Good farming
KW - Productivist values
KW - Stewardship values
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U2 - 10.1007/s10460-021-10205-1
DO - 10.1007/s10460-021-10205-1
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85103409380
SN - 0889-048X
VL - 38
SP - 975
EP - 985
JO - Agriculture and Human Values
JF - Agriculture and Human Values
IS - 4
ER -