Abstract
AbstractThe landowner–tenant relationship is important to the implementation of conservation on agricultural lands. Women own or co‐own a significant portion of U.S. farmland yet are underrepresented in conservation research. The next generation of agriculture professionals can benefit from first‐hand experience in assisting women landowners and their tenants in navigating the complexities of conservation decision‐making. This article analyzes undergraduate student perceptions of landowner–tenant relationships in conservation management through their engagement in case studies with women landowner–tenant pairs in the Western Corn Belt. Student groups were asked to complete a management improvement plan that both incorporated the agronomic and conservation goals discussed by the landowners and tenants, following a field trip and interviews with the landowners, tenants, and other key stakeholders. Assessment data included a quantitative survey of career goals and conservation attitudes, qualitative reflections at start and end of course, and autoethnographic observations. The case studies presented students with new knowledge challenging previously held assumptions, leading some students to reconsider landowner–tenant relationships and conservation decision‐making. However, students returned to existing gendered norms and production‐oriented stereotypes when applying this knowledge in real‐world farm management plans. Although students gained firsthand valuable experience from the case studies, a one‐semester case study was insufficient to significantly shift student perceptions. We recommend that more curricular experiences incorporate the complexities of agricultural decision‐making to better equip future agricultural professionals with skills to ensure environmental and social sustainability outcomes.
Highlights
These commodities represent economic drivers in the state, they contribute to significant soil and water degradation challenges, where a number of surface waters are above the safe drinking water levels for nitrate and smaller municipalities require costly water treatment infrastructure (City of Hastings, 2020; Mittelstet, Gilmore, Messer, Rudnick, & Heatherly, 2019)
Such challenges are ubiquitous across agricultural regions in the United States, where watersheds with greater amounts of cropland are found to contribute more to flood frequency, discharge, and nitrate-nitrogen concentrations in surface waters (Broussard & Turner, 2009; Raymond, Oh, Turner, & Broussard, 2008; Zhang & Schilling, 2006)
Students seemed to identify how the case studies, and learning more about the landowner–tenant relationship, contributed to what they envision to be their future careers in farming or agricultural consulting (Table 1)
Summary
Nebraska is the fourth-ranked state for the total value of agricultural products sold and ranks among the top five cash producers for major U.S commodities including cattle, corn (Zea mays L.), and soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] (USDA-ERS, 2020). Agriculture dominates its land use, with 91% of the state either in cropland or grassland utilized for livestock (Nebraska Department of Agriculture, 2019) and corn or soybean representing approximately 70% of harvested cropland (USDA-NASS, 2020) These commodities represent economic drivers in the state, they contribute to significant soil and water degradation challenges, where a number of surface waters are above the safe drinking water levels for nitrate and smaller municipalities require costly water treatment infrastructure (City of Hastings, 2020; Mittelstet, Gilmore, Messer, Rudnick, & Heatherly, 2019). In spite of decades of conservation research and billions of dollars annually spent on conservation, it is difficult to pinpoint individual attitudes or characteristics that predict farmer adoption of conservation practices (Prokopy et al, 2019), and negative environmental consequences from agricultural production persist (Broussard, Turner, & Westra, 2012; Prokopy et al, 2020)
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