Perceived Benefit and Cost Perception Gaps between Adopters and Non-Adopters of In-Field Conservation Practices of Agricultural Producers

Farmers’ willingness to adopt conservation practices is influenced by their perceptions of the practices. Differences in perceptions point toward potential educational and outreach strategies that may be employed to promote adoption. The purpose of this study was to assess perception gaps between ad...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sustainability 2022-10, Vol.14 (19), p.11803
Main Authors: McCollum, Calder, Bergtold, Jason S, Williams, Jeffery, Al-Sudani, Amer, Canales, Elizabeth
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural economics
Agricultural industry
Agricultural practices
Agricultural production
Agricultural research
Conservation
Conservation practices
Cover crops
Crop rotation
Crop yield
Crop yields
Cropping systems
Crops
Environmental management
No-till cropping
No-tillage
Perception
Perceptions
Soil erosion
Soil fertility
Surveys
Sustainability
Sustainable agriculture
Sustainable development
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Summary:Farmers’ willingness to adopt conservation practices is influenced by their perceptions of the practices. Differences in perceptions point toward potential educational and outreach strategies that may be employed to promote adoption. The purpose of this study was to assess perception gaps between adopters and non-adopters for continuous no-tillage, conservation crop rotations, cover crops, and variable-rate application of inputs. Using primary survey data from Kansas agricultural producers, we evaluated differences in perceptions regarding economic, agronomic, environmental, and management outcomes through descriptive statistic and mean separation tests. Practice adoption ranged from 29% for variable-rate application of inputs to 69% for conservation crop rotations. On average, adopters perceived increases in crop yields and net returns for each practice compared to non-adopters. Perceptions about other factors varied by practice, but perceived benefits tended to be higher for adopters. Similarly, perceived disadvantages from adoption (e.g., higher cost, increased management needs) tended to be lower among adopters. Overall, both adopters and non-adopters perceived environmental benefits from adopting conservation practices. Our findings point toward potential outreach strategies to promote conservation adoption, such as extension and outreach that share more relevant and localized economic information and build upon joint perceptions of environmental benefits of practices.
ISSN:2071-1050
2071-1050
DOI:10.3390/su141911803