Adoption Of Nutrient Management Practices Research Articles

Assessing Farmer Incentives for Transitioning Toward Sustainable Agriculture and Provisioning of Clean Water

Farms are a major source of water pollution in the form of nutrient run off that cause harmful algal blooms and anoxia, both signs of deteriorating water quality. Current policies that incentivize the adoption of nutrient management practices (NMPs) are insufficient, especially as climate change increases the frequency and intensity of flooding. To evaluate the incentives of current policy designs, we implemented a conjoint analysis on survey data collected in the Missisquoi and Lamoille watersheds of Lake Champlain Basin in three waves (2013, 2015, 2020). Using panel and cross-sectional observations over the three waves, we investigate farmers' willingness to accept (WTA) payment for NMPs that improve soil health and reduce nutrient runoff. We identified farmers' WTA for the adoption of three NMPs, cover cropping, conservation tillage, and buffer strips. The approach quantifies gaps between the incentives offered by the current federal conservation programs and payments preferred by farmers as well as the relative importance of NMP attributes. The influence of the payments decreased over the course of the three survey waves, suggesting the characteristics of NMPs are driving farmers' preferences for them. Our analysis shows farmers WTA is 1.13–6 times higher than what existing incentive programs offer. The incentive gaps between WTA and the cheapest of NMPs offered by EQIP are $55.61 for tillage, $103.60 for cover crop and $37.62 for buffers. Designing policy instruments to reduce this gap, the federal programs and policies will be more effective at scaling up the adoption of NMPs by farmers as a tool for sustainable watershed management.

A study on constraints faced by finger millet growers in adoption of nutrient management practices in Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu

Finger millet is an important minor millet crop grown in India. It has the potential to grow in drought and unfavourable agro-climatic conditions. Nutrient management practices can improve the production and productivity of finger millet in the country. There are several factors preventing farmers from adopting nutrient management practices in finger millet cultivation. Hence, the study was conducted to find out the constraints faced by finger millet growers in the Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu. A sample of 120 finger millet growers was randomly selected from the Thally and Kelamangalam blocks of the district. From the study, it was found that the major constraints faced by the finger millet growers were lack of awareness, difficulty in soil sample collection, difficulty in understanding soil test based recommendations, the bulkiness of the organic input, lack of information about the recommended dosage of NPK, lack of awareness about micronutrients, high cost of fertilizers and non-availability of labour during peak season. Based on the findings it was suggested to train the farmers on nutrient management aspects, strengthen the co-operative society, and create awareness about the benefits of soil testing, micronutrients and bio-fertilizers to ensure the greater adoption of nutrient management practices by finger millet growers.

Exploring the mechanisms behind farmers’ perceptions of nutrient loss risk

Harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie’s western basin are caused in large part by nutrient loss from agricultural production. While use of nutrient management practices is encouraged to reduce agricultural nutrient loss and its consequent environmental impacts, such practices are not universally adopted. This study aims to better understand the factors that influence western Lake Erie basin farmers’ risk perceptions associated with agricultural nutrient loss, and thus further our knowledge of how adoption of nutrient management practices may be increased. We propose a conceptual model to explain the relationships that we hypothesize to influence farmers’ risk perceptions associated with agricultural nutrient loss. Specifically, we consider the roles that farmer conservation identity, farmers’ perceived sufficiency of their nutrient management practices, and land vulnerability to nutrient loss play in influencing risk perceptions. We find that many of the hypothesized relationships are not statistically significant, and that risk perception associated with nutrient loss is primarily driven by farmers’ conservation identities (as opposed to the physical vulnerability of the land). While farmers’ perceived sufficiency of their nutrient management practices plays some role in governing risk perceptions, we do not observe the hypothesized relationship between land vulnerability to nutrient loss and perceived sufficiency of nutrient management practices.

Neighbor effects on adoption of conservation practices: cases of grass filter systems and injecting manure

Animal feeding operations are significant nonpoint source polluters for water resources in the USA, through leaching of nutrients applied as manure or chemical fertilizers. Voluntary adoption of nutrient management practices, such as grass filter systems and injecting manure into soil, has been promoted to minimize the nutrient leaching from livestock operations. Previous studies that analyzed the adoption of conservation practices faced difficulties in explaining the adoption of such practices using the variables primarily identified to explain the adoption of profit-oriented technologies. The objective of this study is to analyze the social aspect of the adoption of conservation practices. We specifically analyzed the neighbor effect on the adoption of grass filter systems and injecting manure into soil. We found that farmers who have a neighbor using a grass filter system were more likely to adopt grass filters than farmers who did not have such a neighbor. The explanatory power of the regression model doubled when the neighbor effect was included. Hence, programs and policies to promote the adoption of conservation practices should take into account the social capital aspect of the neighbor effect.

Which factors influence farmers' intentions to adopt nutrient management planning?

The adoption of nutrient management practices can lead to win-win outcomes in terms of both improving productivity and reducing the environmental impact of farming. However, adoption of key practices remains below expectations globally. Few studies specifically focus on the adoption of nutrient management practices and the majority overlook psychological factors in their analysis. This study examines the factors which influence Irish farmers' intention to apply fertiliser on the basis of soil test results. An expanded version of the theory of planned behaviour is used as a framework for analysis. The influence of policy is also accounted for by this study which requires certain farmers in Ireland to adopt soil testing on a mandatory basis. The results for the national sample (n = 1009) show that attitudes, subjective norms (social pressure), perceived behavioural control (ease/difficulty) and perceived resources are significant and positively associated with farmers' intentions. In terms of the voluntary sample (n = 587), only attitude, perceived behavioural control and perceived resources are significantly and positively associated with farmers' intentions. Whereas, for the mandatory sample (n = 422), subjective norms, perceived behavioural control and perceived resources are significantly and correlated in a positive direction with intentions. A number of farm and farmer characteristics are also significantly associated with intentions. Policy recommendations are made based on these results.

Do Nutrient Management Plans Actually Manage Nutrients? Evidence from a Nationally‐Representative Survey of Hog Producers

AbstractA nutrient management plan (NMP) specifies recommended practices to match applied nutrients with crops’ uptake capacity. Because monitoring nutrient applications is difficult, regulators instead oversee NMP adoption. In this paper we examine whether having NMPs make hog farms more likely to adopt nutrient management practices. We estimate nutrient application and uptake rates to assess whether operations with NMPs are less likely to over‐apply nutrients. Using an endogenous treatment effects model to control for potential confounding and selection bias, we find that NMPs are positively correlated with the adoption of nutrient management practices, as well as with the reduced application of excess nutrients.

Off-Farm Employment Effects on Adoption of Nutrient Management Practices

Off-farm income as a share of total farm household income has been increasing. Previous studies found inconsistent results regarding the impact of off-farm income on adoption of conservation practices. We test the hypothesis that off-farm employment has a positive impact on adoption of capital incentive practices and a negative impact on adoption of labor-intensive practices. The results confirm that adoption of injecting manure into the soil, a capitalintensive practice, is positively and significantly impacted by off-farm employment of the operator. However, off-farm employment variables had no effect on adoption of record keeping.