People, place, behavior, and context: A research agenda for expanding our understanding of what motivates farmers' conservation behaviors

Reimer, Adam; Thompson, Aaron W.; Prokopy, Linda Stalker; Arbuckle, J. Gordon; Genskow, Ken; Jackson-Smith, Douglas B.; Lynne, Gary D.; McCann, Laura; Morton, Lois Wright; Nowak, Pete

doi:10.2489/jswc.69.2.57a

Cited by 105 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 24 publications

(14 reference statements)

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“…Like other practices that do not contribute to short-term farm revenue, strategies for encouraging broader adoption include mandates or premiums for farmers from food processers and retailers, enhanced learning and decisionmaking by farmers through education and outreach programs, and government policies that create incentives and/or penalties (59). Our experience working with Midwestern farmers suggests all three will need to be pursued simultaneously for prairie strips to be widely adopted (60)(61)(62). Only then do we expect societal goals for natural resource management such as those posed by the 2008 Gulf Hypoxia Action Plan (12) and the 2014 Presidential Memorandum on pollinator conservation (16) can be met.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prairie strips improve biodiversity and the delivery of multiple ecosystem services from corn–soybean croplands

Schulte

Niemi

Helmers

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

245

192

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Loss of biodiversity and degradation of ecosystem services from agricultural lands remain important challenges in the United States despite decades of spending on natural resource management. To date, conservation investment has emphasized engineering practices or vegetative strategies centered on monocultural plantings of nonnative plants, largely excluding native species from cropland. In a catchment-scale experiment, we quantified the multiple effects of integrating strips of native prairie species amid corn and soybean crops, with prairie strips arranged to arrest run-off on slopes. Replacing 10% of cropland with prairie strips increased biodiversity and ecosystem services with minimal impacts on crop production. Compared with catchments containing only crops, integrating prairie strips into cropland led to greater catchment-level insect taxa richness (2.6-fold), pollinator abundance (3.5-fold), native bird species richness (2.1-fold), and abundance of bird species of greatest conservation need (2.1-fold). Use of prairie strips also reduced total water runoff from catchments by 37%, resulting in retention of 20 times more soil and 4.3 times more phosphorus. Corn and soybean yields for catchments with prairie strips decreased only by the amount of the area taken out of crop production. Social survey results indicated demand among both farming and nonfarming populations for the environmental outcomes produced by prairie strips. If federal and state policies were aligned to promote prairie strips, the practice would be applicable to 3.9 million ha of cropland in Iowa alone.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prairie strips improve biodiversity and the delivery of multiple ecosystem services from corn–soybean croplands

Schulte

Niemi

Helmers

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

245

192

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Additional components of the RAA, including social norms and perceived behavioral control, are likely to play an important role in farmers' climate change adaptation behaviors and should be included in future studies. Social norms have been shown to be important among farmers, particularly for the implementation of conservation practices and technologies, so it would make sense that they would influence farmers' adaptation behaviors-particularly when they are on-the-ground and observable by neighbors (Hu et al, 2006;Lynne et al, 1995;Morton, 2008;Reimer et al, 2014). When making a choice to change practices on their own farm, on the ground factors, such as concerns about drought and extreme rains, are likely to be more salient.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Climate change beliefs, risk perceptions, and adaptation behavior among Midwestern U.S. crop farmers

Mase

Gramig

Prokopy

2017

Climate Risk Management

301

179

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“…More specifically, government subsidies [88,92,119] and credits or loans [70] were found to be positively correlated with adoption of BMPs. Prokopy et al [98] surveyed farmers in the Eagle Creek watershed of Central Indiana and found that all farmers interviewed were motivated by financial gain, albeit to various degrees.…”

Section: Financial Incentivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Reimer et al [46] suggested other macro-scale factors such as state-wide political views may have an influence on conservation program participation, whereas the effect of government agencies and the role of individual political opinion were less clear. Reimer et al [119] found that the states with a population more opposed to public environmental spending are more likely to have higher EQIP application rates. Kara et al [68] found that share of agricultural production in total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of a state has a positive and significant impact on BMP adoption.…”

Section: Macro Factors Such As Location Climate and Policy Instrumentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many studies have included environmental consciousness variables, such as awareness of water quality, soil erosion, and impact of BMPs on the environment, and have found that awareness often leads to adoption of BMPs [69,77,79,119]. Being an environmental steward or having steward intentions [9,70] also have positive impacts on BMP adoption.…”

Section: Farmer's Environmental Consciousnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Factors Influencing Farmers’ Adoption of Best Management Practices: A Review and Synthesis

2018

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Best management practices (BMPs) for reducing agricultural non-point source pollution are widely available. However, agriculture remains a major global contributor to degradation of waters because farmers often do not adopt BMPs. To improve water quality, it is necessary to understand the factors that influence BMP adoption by farmers. We review the findings of BMP adoption studies from both developed and developing countries, published after (or otherwise not included in) two major literature reviews from 2007 and 2008. We summarize the study locations, scales, and BMPs studied; the analytical methods used; the factors evaluated; and the directionality of each factor's influence on BMP adoption. We then present a conceptual framework for BMP adoption decisions that emphasizes the importance of scale, the tailoring or targeting of information and incentives, and the importance of expected farm profits. We suggest that future research directions should focus on study scale, on measuring and modeling of adoption as a continuous process, and on incorporation of social norms and uncertainty into decision-making. More research is needed on uses of social media and market recognition approaches (such as certificate schemes and consumer labeling) to influence BMP adoption.

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People, place, behavior, and context: A research agenda for expanding our understanding of what motivates farmers' conservation behaviors

Cited by 105 publications

References 24 publications

Prairie strips improve biodiversity and the delivery of multiple ecosystem services from corn–soybean croplands

Prairie strips improve biodiversity and the delivery of multiple ecosystem services from corn–soybean croplands

Climate change beliefs, risk perceptions, and adaptation behavior among Midwestern U.S. crop farmers

Factors Influencing Farmers’ Adoption of Best Management Practices: A Review and Synthesis

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