What drives farmers to increase soil organic matter? Insights from the Netherlands

Hijbeek, Renske; Pronk, A.A.; Ittersum, M.K. van; Berge, H.F.M. ten; Bijttebier, Jo; Verhagen, A.

doi:10.1111/sum.12401

Cited by 31 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Similarly, Mullins (1999) suggested a threshold of 2% SOM, below which the soil would be vulnerable to cohesion and degradation. Our finding suggests a possible mechanism for avoiding risks of land degradation by increasing ¼ of the critical level of SOM in five years, even though SOM content is highly reliant on ❖ www.esajournals.org 9 February 2020 ❖ Volume 11(2) ❖ Article e03028 soil management practices (Hijbeek et al 2018). In turn, the positive effect of nitrogen on soil organic carbon can be traced to increased net primary production improving vigor of plants and gives a boost to SOM turnover.…”

Section: Improvement In Soil Fertilitymentioning

confidence: 79%

Ecosystem services for intensification of agriculture, with emphasis on increased nitrogen ecological use efficiency

et al. 2020

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In weathered tropical soil, low nutrient use efficiency can lead to agricultural systems becoming unsustainable. Therefore, tropical agriculture is highly dependent on ecosystem services, such as nutrient recycling and carbon sequestration, to enhance soil fertility, increase nutrient uptake, and facilitate sustainable production of agricultural goods. This research aimed to find the balance between sustainability and profitability of tropical agriculture by evaluating the changes in soil caused by the ecosystem services provided by the biomass of leguminous trees (Gliricidia) and assessing how these changes (associated with potassium) can affect nitrogen‐use efficiency and maize yield. An experiment was conducted testing the impact of Glircidia biomass addition vs. bare soil, with or without addition of both nitrogen and/or potassium. Changes in soil organic matter, (SOM) base cations sum, soil resistance, N uptake, N‐use efficiency, and maize yield were evaluated. Gliricidia biomass, when used with N and K, contributed to increasing SOM by 5.0 g/kg and the sum of base cations by 1458. 65 kg/ha in the 0–30 cm layer. Moreover, grain yield was increased by approximately 70% in the treatments with Gliricidia when compared to treatments without biomass where yield was very low. In bare soil, the additional yield of 1.5 tons/ha would not be enough to convince farmers to change slash and burn to conventional bare soil systems. Our results showed that leguminous trees, such as Gliricidia, might contribute to ensuring sustainable agricultural intensification in humid tropical soils with low natural fertility by providing ecosystem services such as biomass production, carbon sequestration, base cation recycling, and increased N acquisition. These findings might be an important strategy to replace the common slash‐and‐burn‐system and preserve the rainforest against the traditional shifting cultivation system. In contrast, the conventional system with bare soil showed that the addition of nitrogen was unfeasible, mainly in conditions of high rainfall precipitation. In these circumstances, the use of potassium may increase nitrogen‐use efficiency only when biomass is not used.

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Section: Improvement In Soil Fertilitymentioning

confidence: 79%

Ecosystem services for intensification of agriculture, with emphasis on increased nitrogen ecological use efficiency

et al. 2020

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“…To the best of our knowledge, no study investigated these aspects for agronomic management to reduce FHB and mycotoxins in wheat before. Two related studies showed that the belief 'increase in soil fungi' was negatively related to an attitude to increase soil organic matter in the Netherlands [35]. And the belief 'Increase risk of fungal diseases' was not a significant driver to adopt incorporation of crop residue in the soil (a well-known measure against Fusarium species infection), as surveyed among Italian farmers [36].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This latter analysis was extended with an assessment of the robustness of the belief results, because the statistical validity of the standard analysis of the TPB beliefs has been questioned, i.e. the so-called expectancy-value muddle [34][35][36][37].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors underlying Dutch farmers' intentions to adapt their agronomic management to reduce Fusarium species infection in wheat

2020

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Infection of wheat by Fusarium species can lead to Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) and mycotoxin contamination, thereby reducing food quality and food safety, and leading to economic losses. Agronomic management through the implementation of various pre-harvest measures can reduce the probability of Fusarium spp. infection in the wheat field. To design interventions that could stimulate wheat farmers to (further) improve their agronomic management to reduce FHB, it is key to understand farmers' behaviour towards adapting their management. The aim of this paper was to understand the intention, underlying behavioural constructs, and beliefs of Dutch wheat farmers to adapt their agronomic management to reduce FHB and mycotoxin contamination in wheat, applying the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). Data were collected from 100 Dutch wheat farmers via a questionnaire. The standard TPB analysis was extended with an assessment of the robustness of the belief results to account for the statistical validity of the analysis on TPB beliefs (i.e. to address the so-called expectancy-value muddle). Forty-six percent of the farmers had a positive intention to change their management in the next 5 years. The two behavioural constructs significantly related to this intention were attitude and social norm, whereas association with the perceived behavioural control construct was insignificant indicating that farmers did not perceive any barriers to change their behaviour. Relevant attitudinal beliefs indicated specific attributes of wheat, namely yield, quality and safety (lower mycotoxin contamination). This indicates that strengthening these beliefs-by demonstrating that a change in management will result in a higher yield and quality and lower mycotoxin levels-will result in a stronger attitude and, subsequently, a higher intention to change management. Interventions to strengthen these beliefs should preferably go by the most important referents for social norms, which were the buyers and the farmer cooperatives in this study.

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“…The European soil map (European Commission, 2012) shows that Brandenburg has coarse soils with a clay fraction <18% and a sand fraction >65%. In combination with high-intensity arable farming and large field sizes (>50 ha) these sandy soils are prone to losing soil organic C from topsoil and wind erosion (Hijbeek et al, 2014), especially in fallow periods. The German Ministry for Food and Agriculture therefore recommends maintaining a soil coverage ration above 25% throughout the year, by applying cover cropping and undersowing (BMELV, 2013).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Farm level implementation of soil conservation measures: farmers’ beliefs and intentions

Werner

Wauters²,

Bijttebier³

et al. 2017

Renew. Agric. Food Syst.

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Understanding motivating factors for taking soil conservation measures is seen as key to improving on-farm implementation. However, to date only few on-farm conservation measures have been investigated. The objective of this paper is to investigate the influence of farmers’ subjective beliefs on their intention to apply and actual implementation of cover cropping, with the region of Brandenburg (Germany) as a case. An additional objective was to investigate how these insights can contribute to increase farm level implementation of soil conservation measures. Theory of planned behavior provides an approach to understand human behavior by analyzing farmers’ subjective beliefs. Our results, based on a survey of 96 farmers, show that attitudes (ATTs) and perceived difficulty significantly explain variations in intention to apply cover cropping, with ATTs being generally very positive. We discuss that, in this case, the most effective way to increase on-farm implementation is to decrease the farmers’ perception of difficulty. This can be achieved by providing information to farmers on how to overcome barriers to implementation of conservation measures. In-depth insights into belief structures reveal what kind of information is most useful in the case of cover cropping.

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What drives farmers to increase soil organic matter? Insights from the Netherlands

Cited by 31 publications

References 30 publications

Ecosystem services for intensification of agriculture, with emphasis on increased nitrogen ecological use efficiency

Ecosystem services for intensification of agriculture, with emphasis on increased nitrogen ecological use efficiency

Factors underlying Dutch farmers' intentions to adapt their agronomic management to reduce Fusarium species infection in wheat

Farm level implementation of soil conservation measures: farmers’ beliefs and intentions

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