Understanding Conservation Practice Adoption Of Midwestern US Corn Farmers

Improving our understanding of what drives farmers’ voluntary adoption of nutrient and soil best management practices is important for the environment. Growing evidence from the physical  sciences shows that adoption of... [ view full abstract ]

Improving our understanding of what drives farmers’ voluntary adoption of nutrient and soil best management practices is important for the environment. Growing evidence from the physical  sciences shows that adoption of single practices, while important, lead to minimal reductions in non-point source pollution levels when compared to using combinations of multiple practices on farming systems.  We build from this research revealing the need to further our understanding of how farmers’ simultaneous use of multiple nitrogen best management practices can improve the resilience of agro-ecological systems.   We investigate the social factors that predict the use of multiple nitrogen best management over time using structural equation modeling with latent variables and 2017 farmer survey data from four Midwestern US states (n=1800). Our path model includes farmer attributes, farming experience, knowledge, information use, and environmental attitudes and values as predictors of practice adoption.  Most farmers in our sample had adopted at least one of the five management practices we examine in our models; more than half of farmers used at least three practices (e.g. variable rate nutrient application, soil maps, and yield maps).  Path model analyses reveal that education, knowledge, and information use increase the adoption of multiple practices, explaining almost thirty percent of the variability in practice adoption.   This study joins a growing body of research seeking to discuss promising avenues through which future research may inform key gaps in our understanding of the factors that shape practice adoption.