Research on the adoption of rural innovations is reviewed and interpreted through a cross-disciplinary lens to provide practical guidance for research, extension and policy relating to conservation practices. Adoption of innovations by landholders is presented as a dynamic learning process. Adoption depends on a range of personal, social, cultural and economic factors, as well as on characteristics of the innovation itself. Adoption occurs when the landholder perceives that the innovation in question will enhance the achievement of their personal goals. A range of goals is identifiable among landholders, including economic, social and environmental goals. Innovations are more likely to be adopted when they have a high ‘relative advantage’ (perceived superiority to the idea or practice that it supersedes), and when they are readily trialable (easy to test and learn about before adoption). Non-adoption or low adoption of a number of conservation practices is readily explicable in terms of their failure to provide a relative advantage (particularly in economic terms) or a range of difficulties that landholders may have in trialing them.

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Attempts to reduce land degradation by influencing the management behaviour of farmers will be better informed when the relative importance of factors influencing the use of %onservation practices aimed at enhancing longer-term land productivity can be quantijed. Land managers' perceptions of the technical feasibility and profitability of such practices will play an important role in the decisions about their use. Of particular interest is the relative importance of an individualS perceptions of the profitability of conservation behaviours and the individual's conservation orientation. In a pretest-post test study the influence of prior perceptions about two 'conservation' practices, and of environmental orientation, on the subsequent behaviour of farmers is investigated. A logistic regression model is developed to show the relative influence of perceptions of profitability and technical feasibility and of personal environmental concern on the choice of conservation practices. Perceived Profitability was the most important factor influencing the use of conservation practices.The economic costs to a landholder of many conservation practices may exceed the on-farm benefits on a short-term and possibly long-term basis. The lack of immediate financial incentive in a dynamic farm economy may result in many land-* John Cay is an Associate Professor and Head,

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