Abstract
Conservation practices in agriculture—such as biological pest control, provision of pollinator habitat and cover cropping—may provide ecosystem services that are beneficial to both farmers and wildlife. Despite these benefits, however, their use is not yet widespread and the factors that may limit adoption is not well understood. In this study we tested potential associations between farmers’ beliefs about ecosystem services and their management practices using data collected from questionnaires and cognitive maps from 31 Michigan blueberry and cherry farmers describing their farming systems. We found that farmers who included key biological pest control concepts in their mental model representations reported the use of more conservation practices, and/or participation in conservation programs, than those who did not. In addition, the timing of management practices was a more central factor in the mental models of farmers who included both natural predators and beneficial insects than those omitting these factors. Finally, the farmers who included those two factors showed higher degrees of systems thinking based on mental model metric analysis. We suggest that outreach emphasizing the relationships between ecosystem services and the factors farmers view as most important may positively influence communication and potential of adoption of conservation practices and preventative pest management strategies.
Highlights
Farmers are in a unique position to foster the conservation of natural resources and cultivate ecosystem services because their decisions and behaviors have a direct impact on the environment
To better understand how farmers think about their farming systems, and if differences in mental models are associated with the adoption of these types of conservation practices, we focused on the following questions:
The mental model and questionnaire data were combined in order to better understand potential relationships between ecological systems thinking and the adoption of conservation practices, and to test the hypotheses that conservation practice adoption will be associated with mental models that incorporate ecological concepts
Summary
Farmers are in a unique position to foster the conservation of natural resources and cultivate ecosystem services because their decisions and behaviors have a direct impact on the environment. Certain agricultural practices can positively influence crop production while providing societal or ecosystem benefits such as preservation of wildlife and improved water quality (Swinton et al, 2007; Lindell et al, 2018). Such “ecosystem services” that benefit crop production include biological management of pests, increased pollination, and soil health through development of biota (Power, 2010; Park et al, 2018). Several studies have found associations between more “complex” thinking about ecosystems and the use of conservation practices (Vuillot et al, 2016; Teixeira et al, 2018) but understanding of how ways of thinking, behavior, and environmental outcomes are interrelated remains less characterized
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