Soil Conservation Practices and Stakeholder’s Participation in Research Projects—Empirical Evidence from Southern Italy

Rosanna Salvia,Rosaria Simone,Giovanni Quaranta,Luca Salvati

doi:10.3390/agriculture8060085

Abstract

Adoption of soil conservation practices is promoted by increased engagement between researchers and stakeholders. By reporting a case study from southern Italy where farmers have been involved in research projects dealing with soil conservation over several years, we demonstrated that the rate of adoption of conservative technologies is positively linked to the degree of stakeholder participation in the project and that farmers (and other stakeholders) have been driven toward more conscious perception of the complex link between agricultural practices, environmental impacts and socioeconomic effects. The results of this study reinforce the pivotal role of effective participatory processes in soil conservation—evidencing the importance of (i) time required to build relationships and (ii) intensity (and persistence) of collaboration among similar initiatives. Empirical evidence highlights the need to combine different approaches to deal with soil degradation. As well as the participatory time length, the synergies between the methods utilized, and the range of interacting mind sets are also very important.

Highlights

Research approaches to environmental issues may focus on theoretical solutions and not always have sufficient regard for the implications of land management choices
Starting from the consideration that the adoption of innovation is a learning process [4,5,6], in this paper we demonstrate that the involvement of farmers and other stakeholders in more than one research project, over several years, significantly improves the likelihood of adoption of soil conservation practices [7,8,9]
This paper describes a case study in Basilicata, southern Italy, where farmers have been involved in two recent research projects, and attempts to address two main questions: (i) is the rate of adoption of technologies linked to the degree of stakeholder participation in the projects; and (ii) how have the attitudes/behaviors of the farmers and other stakeholders been influenced by their participation in the projects? An improved knowledge of factors leading to a higher participation of farmers to research activities may contribute to improve the effectiveness of soil conservation measures, e.g., promoting adoption of technologies and field practices that may contain soil degradation

Summary

Introduction

Research approaches to environmental issues may focus on theoretical solutions and not always have sufficient regard for the implications of land management choices. Starting from the consideration that the adoption of innovation is a learning process [4,5,6], in this paper we demonstrate that the involvement of farmers and other stakeholders in more than one research project, over several years, significantly improves the likelihood of adoption of soil conservation practices [7,8,9]. This gradually overcomes the barriers to effective implementation, such as lack of information or lack of trust in the proposed practices that may exist. A careful analysis of Agriculture 2018, 8, 85; doi:10.3390/agriculture8060085 www.mdpi.com/journal/agriculture

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Conclusion