Soil conservation in Swiss agriculture—Approaching abstract and symbolic meanings in farmers’ life-worlds

This paper explores the significance of ‘life-worlds’ for better understanding why farmers adopt or reject soil conservation measures and for identifying basic dimensions to be covered by social learning processes in Swiss agricultural soil protection. The study showed that farmers interpret soil erosion and soil conservation measures against the background of their entire life-world. By doing so, farmers consider abstract and symbolic meanings of soil conservation. This is, soil conservation measures have to be feasible and practical in the everyday farming routine, however, they also have to correspond with their aesthetic perception, their value system and their personal and professional identities. Consequently, by switching to soil conservation measures such as no-tillage farmers have to adapt not only the routines of their daily farming life, but also their perception of the aesthetics of cultivated land, underlying values and images of themselves. Major differences between farmers who adopt and farmers who reject no-tillage were found to depend on the degree of coherence they could create between the abstract and symbolic meanings of the soil conservation measure. From this perspective, implementation of soil protection measures faces the challenge of facilitating interactions between farmers, experts and scientists at a ‘deeper’ level, with an awareness of all significant dimensions that characterise the life-world. The paper argues that a certain level of shared symbolic meaning is essential to achieving mutual understanding in social learning processes.     

Land titling policy and soil conservation in the northern uplands of Vietnam

In Vietnam, a quasi-private property regime has been established in 1993 with the issuance of exchangeable and mortgageable long-term land use right certificates. Using primary qualitative and quantitative data collected in a mountainous district of Northern Vietnam, this paper investigates the role of the land policy in the adoption of soil conservation technologies by farmers. This issue is of crucial importance in the region where population growth and growing market demands have induced farmers to intensify agricultural production. While poverty has been reduced, environmental problems such as soil erosion, landslides, and declining soil fertility have become more severe over the past years. Our findings suggest that despite farmers’ awareness of erosion, soil conservation technologies are perceived as being economically unattractive; therefore, most upland farmers continue to practice the prevailing erosion-prone cultivation system. Focusing on agroforestry as one major soil conservation option, we estimate household and plot-level econometric models to empirically assess the determinants of adoption. We find that the possession of a formal land title positively influences adoption, but that the threat of land reallocations in villages discourages adoption by creating uncertainty and tenure insecurity. The analyses reveal that these two effects interact with each other but are of small magnitude. We conclude that the issuance of land titles is a necessary but not sufficient prerequisite to encouraging the adoption of soil conservation practices. However, current practices remain economically unattractive to farmers. This deficiency needs to be addressed by interdisciplinary research and complemented by strong efforts by local authorities to promote sustainable land use.     

Land management,erosion problems and soil and water conservation in Fincha’a watershed,western Ethiopia

The knowledge of soil erosion processes, attitude towards rational use of resources and institutional support affect the capability of farmers to implement soil and water conservation (SWC) measures. This research was conducted to determine soil erosion problems and the factors that affect the adoption of SWC measures in Fincha’a watershed, western Ethiopia. A total of 50 farmers were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire, and two group discussions were held with 20 farmers. Moreover, transects were walked to classify erosion features, and a quantitative erosion survey was made on 19 farm plots during the rainy season of 2004. The results showed that crop fields are affected by annual soil losses ranging from 24 to 160 Mg ha⁻¹. Farmers are well aware of these erosion problems, and related the soil loss to steep slopes and a decline in soil fertility. However, they did not invest much in SWC measures, but apply soil management practices to sustain crop yields. The wealth status of farmers, land tenure arrangements and lack of access the farmers have to information are the major factors affecting SWC adoption. High labour demand of SWC measures, lack of short-term benefits and free grazing have negatively affected SWC adoption. Soil erosion problems in Fincha’a watershed have both on-site and off-site effects that require integrated SWC planning at watershed scale.     

Farmers’ intrinsic motivations,barriers to the adoption of conservation practices and effectiveness of policy instruments: Empirical evidence from northern Australia

The rate and extent of adoption of conservation practices by farmers is influenced, in principle, by characteristics of the practices and those of the farmers. Governments use policy instruments to increase the rate of adoption of practices which generate public benefits if it is deemed that privately optimal adoption rates will not lead to publicly optimal conservation outcomes. Recent nation-wide conservation programs in Australia have attracted criticism for low levels of effectiveness and efficiency. Could it be that program design has ignored key adoption factors, in particular characteristics of the target audience? If adoption is subject to personal factors, such as the motivations for farming, then it is likely that so are farmers’ responses to policy approaches and instruments. In this case study, surveys were conducted of farmers in three regions within the tropical savannas of northern Australia, where land-use systems are characterized by large-scale broad-acre beef grazing enterprises. Inter alia, these surveys collected data on graziers’ motivations, impediments to adoption of conservation practices, and perceived effectiveness of policy instruments in overcoming impediments. The research found that graziers had a very high level of conservation and lifestyle motivation and were motivated to lesser extents by financial/economic and social considerations, pointing to a strong stewardship ethic of graziers, or altruistic motif. Motivational profiles were significantly correlated with farmers’ perceptions about what constrained them from implementing conservation based management systems. Motivational profiles also explained differences in farmers’ perceptions of and stated propensity to interact with policy instruments, particularly at a regional scale and in the context of historical government interventions. On the basis of the empirical evidence presented, governments would be well advised to harness the diverse set of aspirations and motivations of farmers when designing conservation programs rather than. In particular, conservation programs need to take advantage of farmers’ stewardship ethic for maximum effectiveness and efficiency, and minimize the risk of crowding out intrinsic motivation and altruistic behaviours.     

基于结构方程模型的集聚农户共生认知及影响因素分析:以重庆市为例

研究目的:探讨对集聚农户共生、集聚区土地利用率提高的影响因素,为提升农户共生的认知水平、优化农户共生关系及促进资源的节约集约利用提供有效路径及理论指导。研究方法:参与式农户调查,结构方程模型。研究结果:(1)户主自身特征、农户家庭特征、集聚共生效益特征及外部环境与政策特征这4类外源潜变量对农户共生认知产生重要影响且影响程度大小不同,其中,集聚共生效益特征的影响最为显著,外部环境与政策特征、户主自身特征和农户家庭特征的影响依次减弱;(2)是否为干部、对原集聚模式的满意度、是否促进农户生产生活条件和政府对集聚区的补贴力度分别对这4类外源潜变量具有较好的解释能力。研究结论:显化农户共生效益、增强"精英"农户及村干部的正向引导、提升农户成员受教育水平、培养农户"共生共荣"理念等是深化农户共生关系,促进和谐乡村人居环境建设的重要路径。     

Factors affecting farmers’ acceptance of conservation measures—A case study from north-eastern Germany

Intensive forms of agriculture have been proven to cause severe environmental effects, such as soil erosion by water and wind, or the pollution of ground and surface water with nutrients and pesticides contributing to the deterioration of natural habitats and the loss in biodiversity. In order to avoid or mitigate these detrimental environmental effects, a number of conservation measures can be undertaken by farmers. However, the adoption of these measures is highly dependent on the assumed benefits and risks attached as well as the personal perception and attitude of the individual farmer.This paper presents the outcome of a survey conducted in north-eastern Germany aimed at analysing farmers’ acceptance of different conservation measures. Eleven farmers, managing more than 80% (about 13,000 ha) of the agricultural land in the chosen case study region were interviewed. Respondents were asked about their personal experiences with different environmental measures and requested to assess these measures, e.g., regarding costs, time and labour demands, attached risks, or effectiveness. They also ranked these factors in terms of importance for decision making on adoption or rejection of a new measure. The findings show that, despite of the general assumption that farmers’ decisions are mostly driven by economic rationality, costs were not the most important factor. Other factors, like associated risks, effectiveness, or time and effort necessary to implement a certain measure were equally or even more important depending on the specific situation.     

Decision-making in soil conservation: application of a behavioral model to potato farmers in Sri Lanka

Soil erosion is one of the most devastating problems in the upper watershed areas in Sri Lanka. Erosion-prone cultivation of vegetables (especially potatoes) on steep slopes, without soil conservation measures, has become a major problem in the recent past. Soil erosion has significant impacts on on-farm as well as off-farm activities. Although various institutions have launched programs to introduce soil conservation techniques, these have not yielded expected results mainly due to a lack of understanding of the potato farmers’ behavior on investment decisions on soil conservation. Hence the conceptual model on investment decisions on soil conservation was tested in this paper. The analytical results of the generalized least square model indicated the importance of personal and economic, as well as institutional, factors in decision-making in soil conservation. Therefore, obtaining farmer adoption of erosion-control practices will require the use of various implementation tools such as education, subsidies, and technical assistance. Low willingness to invest in soil conservation indicated the necessity for public installation of conservation structures if they are to be widely used in potato farmlands in the upper watersheds in Sri Lanka.     

Commonage land and farmer uptake of the rural environment protection scheme in Ireland

This paper looks at some of the factors which may influence REPS participation among commonage farmers in the west of The Republic of Ireland and on the impact REPS has had on participating farmers’ income and on their environmental practices and attitudes. Commonage is land held in common ownership on which two or more farmers have grazing rights. There are about 4500 commonages in Ireland and they are important to Irish agriculture, to conservation of the uplands, in managing the environment and in sustaining rural livelihoods. The study reveals that sheep farmers are less likely to join REPS than cattle farmers and that being in receipt of other sources of State income acted as a deterrent to participation. REPS appears to have had a positive impact on participants’ income and seems to have been successful in changing farmer practices in a more environmentally benign direction, when doing so imposed no additional costs on the farmer. Environmental awareness among all farmers appears to be poor although REPS farmers display more appreciation of the degraded state of commonage than do non-REPS farmers. Farmers preference for a continuation of the status quo with respect to commonage management and a lack of discontent with respect to the distribution of past commonage rights points to the potential of building on a more co-operative approach to environmental management.     

Factors influencing participation in the Nova Scotia Environmental Farm Plan Program

There is growing interest in Nova Scotia's Environmental Farm Plan (NS EFP) program among farmers and policy makers because of several reasons. First, effectiveness of standardized or uniform beneficial management practices in mitigating the negative environmental impacts from agriculture is limited by inherent heterogeneities in agricultural production systems. In addition, there is heightened interest in farmers generating ecological goods and services to society. This study investigates the determinants of participation in the NS EFP program. A discrete choice model of NS EFP participation was applied to a sample of 83 farmers (representing a 31% response rate). To increase relevance of the study to program administrators, the study also examined farmers’ use of various channels and sources of information on farm conservation practices. The most used sources of information on farm conservation practices include a mix of interpersonal sources and government agencies. Although online information (especially those available for free) appears to be gaining popularity in usage, overall, electronic and computer channels of information (especially radio and television) were used less compared with traditional channels of communicating farm conservation information (such as newsletters and agricultural magazines). Regression analysis suggests that farm characteristics (i.e., farm type, farm size, farm income) and farmer capacity variables (i.e., specialized training and knowledge from EFP program information sessions and workshops, and on-farm stewardship demonstrations) were significant determinants of environmental farm planning.     

Endogenizing the Planning Horizon in Urban fringe agriculture

To evaluate the nature of farm operation longevity in urban fringe agriculture, this paper develops a model that endogenizes planning horizon and estimates an empirical model whereby anticipated longevity in farming is regressed against farm, farmer, regulatory and land market related variables. The results suggest that the length of the planning horizon is directly related to farm profitability and confirm the impermanence syndrome hypothesis that land values are inversely related to the planning horizon. Contrary to farmers’ claims that periodic land disposal provides an internal source of credit to support long-term viability, the disposition of portions of the farmland is found to shorten the planning horizon. Innovative farmers are found to have longer planning horizons while experiences with Right-to-Farm conflicts are found to result in decreased planning horizon. Given the expected continual increase in land values and the growing physical closeness of farmers to their non-farm neighbors, significant concerns remain about the long-term survivability of urban fringe farmers. This study suggests the importance of considering farmers’ planning horizon as a key component in farmland retention programs.     

基于农民视角的湖北省鄂中平原类型区农地整理项目立项决策评价

研究目的:从农民对农地整理项目的需求出发,对农地整理项目立项决策进行评价。研究方法:基于熵权改进的TOPSIS法。研究结果:(1)当前影响农业生产的主要因素有自然灾害、农业基础设施以及耕地资源禀赋,因此从以上三个方面构建了基于农民视角的农地整理项目立项决策评价指标体系,进而考察了农民对农地整理项目需求的紧迫度;(2)实证分析结果显示,从农民的角度来看,湖北省农地整治立项优先顺序应为:孝南区肖港项目、随县新街项目、潜江市浩口项目、随县安居项目、孝南区陡岗项目和潜江市熊口项目;(3)基于农民视角的农地整理项目立项决策评价结果反映了目前农民对农地整理项目需求的实际要求,但与当前政府主导的农地整理项目立项决策评价结果不完全一致。研究结论:农民是农地整理的核心利益相关者和最终受益者,从农民的视角对农地整理项目立项决策进行评价,更符合农民的利益需求,因此,农民对农地整理项目需求的紧迫度越高的项目原则上应予以优先立项。     

Forest resource use and perception of farmers on conservation of a usufruct forest (Soppinabetta) of Western Ghats, India

The negative impact of anthropogenic activity on tropical forests is well documented, but the underlying factors, including socioeconomic conditions, government policy, and agricultural practices, that influence forest degradation in developing countries are poorly understood. For centuries, Soppinabetta forests (SBFs) in the Western Ghats of India have provided essential habitat for wildlife and vital organic resources (leaf litter, green foliage) for the cultivation of betel nut palms (Areca catechu) and rice paddy (Oryza sativa). Historically, betel nut farmers carefully managed resource extraction in SBFs, but recent changes in land use policy allow for unmitigated resource extraction by site dwellers, which may imperil the traditional sustainable management of SBFs. Site dwellers live on government allotted sites and primarily derive their income through the sale of forest-based products. We used SBFs as a model system to investigate the factors governing: (i) forest resource extraction, (ii) the effect of changing agricultural practices on the rate of resource extraction, and (iii) farmers’ perception of SBFs conservation in response to changes in governmental land use policy. Results from surveys of 90 households (57 farmers and 33 site-dwellers) and the forest department indicate individual farmers collected an average of 31.09 (range 0-125) metric tons of leaf litter and 19.11 metric tons (range 0-120) of green foliage per year. Organic resource harvesting by farmers was positively correlated with the size of betel nut plantations, size of SBFs, and number of livestock owned per household. Betel nut plantations require six times more compost than food grains cultivated in field paddies. In past one decade, 33% of field paddies have been converted into betel nut plantations, increasing the strain on SBFs for forest resources. Farmers believe that when they lose provisional ownership of SBFs, site dwellers unsustainably harvest resources and severely damage SBFs. We suggest that an inclusive, local-level, farmer-driven protection be implemented to preserve the SBF heritage system of Western Ghats.     

Adoption of conservation agriculture in Europe: Lessons of the KASSA project

According to KASSA findings, conservation agriculture is less adopted in Europe compared to other adopting regions and, reduced tillage is more common than no-tillage and cover crops. Currently, it is not popularised and it is less researched. The lack of knowledge on conservation agriculture systems and their management and, the absence of dynamic and effective innovation systems make it difficult and socio-economically risky for European farmers to give up ploughing which is a paradigm rooted in their cultural backgrounds. In Norway and Germany the adoption of conservation agriculture has been encouraged and subsidised in order to mitigate soil erosion. In the other European countries the adoption process seems mainly driven by farmers and, the major driving force has been the cost reduction in machinery, fuel and labour saving. Soil and water conservation concerns did not appear as main drivers in the European farmers’ decision to shift or not to conservation agriculture.The shift of European farmers to conservation agriculture is being achieved through a step-by-step attitude, large scale farms are the most adopters. This adoption trend may grow in the future. Indeed, the need to improve farms’ competitiveness, the market globalization and the steady increase of fuel cost will likely contribute to arouse European farmers’ interest in conservation agriculture as it slashes significantly the production costs.Conservation agriculture is not equally suitable for all the European agroecosystems. The need of soil and water conservation in Europe requires anticipating the ongoing process in order to improve its ecological and socio-economic sustainability. Priority would be to define which regions in Europe are the most suitable for conservation agriculture taking into account climate and soil constraints, length of growing period, water availability and quality, erosion hazards and farming conditions. Policy favouring the use of soil cover and profitable crop rotations as management strategies for weed, pest and diseases control will certainly allow developing and disseminating efficient and acceptable conservation agriculture systems.     

Payments for environmental services in Indonesia: What if economic signals were lost in translation?

This article provides an analysis of a payment for environmental services (PES) scheme in the Cidanau watershed, Indonesia. It contributes to the debate on the alleged effectiveness of such economic incentives to actually change decisions among land users. Building on the standard PES theory of change, one would assume that farmers respond to payments and change their land use decisions accordingly for the delivery of environmental services. However, at the project level the impacts of economic incentives depend on how the signal is transmitted to decision-makers. An extensive household survey was undertaken among 270 participating farmers in order to investigate these assumptions. Results indicate that farmers join the scheme for intrinsic motivations rather than because of economic incentives. Besides, the scheme does not target farmers whose decisions could be changed for the sake of service provision. Finally, farmer group leaders display disproportionate power of decision while individual farmers have a low level of understanding of the PES programme. As a consequence, land use patterns might not depend on the economic incentive only; rather they are likely to be determined by the local social context, traditions and economic dependency on forests. This in turn casts some doubts on the strong (yet contested) economic assumptions that underlie the emergence of PES schemes and on their modus operandi in developing countries.     

Farmers’ perception of effective drought policy implementation: A case study of 2009–2010 drought in Yunnan province,China

Using a qualitative social research method at the local administrative level, this paper provides insight into the policy process in China and farmers’ perceptions of the effectiveness of policies implemented to deal with drought. Two villages in rural South-West Yunnan were purposefully selected for the study. The research started with the general assumption that China has a strong top-down hierarchal approach to policy processes and that funding dispersal is prioritised by the central government. However, the study found that funding proposals are prioritised for selection in a bottom-up, participatory manner from the local level. The study also found that farmers’ perceptions of the effectiveness of policy implementation were directly related to their past experience. Among the nine indicators used to measure the effectiveness of policy implementation at the local level, the farmers in the study area perceived access to roads as highly effective; water use efficiency projects, market demand, human mobility for jobs, and government funds as moderately effective; drought knowledge, community participation in planning, and governance structures as least effective; and the role of leadership as not effective. The study found that farmers’ adaptation at the local level is oriented towards short-term market rewards and income diversification. Farmers’ local-level adaptation is guided by government priorities and driven by their perception of tangible benefits. To ensure the effectiveness of policy implementation, long-term adaptation strategies, such as awareness raising, capacity building, watershed management, and source conservation need to be strengthened at the local level.     

农户风险感知与施药行为的响应关系研究——基于辽宁省菜农数据的实证检验

本文基于辽宁省蔬菜主产区434户菜农调研数据,运用结构方程模型验证了农户风险感知与施药行为的响应关系。研究结果表明,农户风险感知潜变量正向影响农户的施药行为响应,但是风险感知和施药行为潜变量中各个因子的影响路径和显著程度存在差异;农户是否加入合作社对农户风险感知与施药行为的作用关系起到一定的调节效应。基于研究结论,本文提出风险意识提升、保障条件供给和发展新型农业经营主体三方面的建议。     

The ‘Neighbourhood Effect’: A multidisciplinary assessment of the case for farmer co-ordination in agri-environmental programmes

In this paper we present a multi-disciplinary analysis of the potential impacts of undertaking similar environmental actions on multiple farms in a small geographic area, using organic farming as a proxy for a co-ordinated approach. Recent papers have called for more co-ordinated efforts between farmers in terms of their environmental actions, but there has been limited applied research demonstrating the environmental benefits or the economic and social implications to farmers of this approach. Comparative analysis of biodiversity, soil and water, and farm profitability were undertaken in England on 32 matched farms in areas of low and high organic farming concentration; qualitative interviews were also conducted with 48 farmers living in two of the eight areas. Findings demonstrate higher overall levels of biodiversity on organic farms (particularly in “hotspot” areas) but this was not universal across the species groups investigated. Higher water infiltration rates were found in organic grasslands, which could prove to be a useful measure to combat flooding. In terms of the technical efficiency of producing these environmental gains, conventional and organic farms in hotspot areas demonstrated equivalent efficiency from a financial perspective. Socio-cultural research identified the different amounts of trust farmers have in their neighbours, based in part on their performance as ‘good farmers’. We discuss the neighbourhood effect with a multi-disciplinary approach and conclude that encouraging local farmer co-ordination can have clear environmental benefits without high economic cost, but must be undertaken with caution - specifically regarding the trade-offs between benefits, local geophysical and social characteristics, and assumptions made about inter-farmer trust.     

Auctions as a Means of Creating a Market for Public Goods from Agriculture

The paper looks at the possibility of creating a market for environmental goods and services in the countryside by awarding conservation contracts to farmers on the basis of competitive bidding. Auctions have several theoretical advantages over alternative allocation mechanisms (such as standard-rate payments) because they allow the participants to deal with informational asymmetries and the uncertainty about the value of the (non-market) goods being traded. A formal model of bidding behaviour in ‘green auctions’ shows that bidding strategies are determined by the individual farmers' costs of implementing the conservation contracts and their beliefs about the maximum acceptable payment level, making the auction an imperfect cost revelation mechanism. Auctions can reduce the information rents accruing to farmers and can increase the cost-effectiveness of public goods provision. Strategic bidding behaviour in multiple-signup auctions as well as high transaction costs are potential sources of reduced efficiency.     

Landscape properties as drivers for farm diversification: A Dutch case study

Farm diversification is stimulated by the societal demand to transform production countryside into consumption countryside. In most empirical studies on farmers’ decision making for diversification, geographical information is either omitted or reduced to a variable that links the farm to an administrative unit. Therefore, the influence of the exact farm location on farmers’ decision making is often lacking. The paper addresses the role of location, in terms of site specific natural conditions as well as neighboring dynamics, in influencing farmers’ decision making to diversify. Moreover, it investigates to what extend low returns from primary production stimulate farmers to find new survival strategies, and therefore explains diversification. The Gelderse Vallei area, a region in the center of the Netherlands, is used as a case study. For this area an extensive farm survey data could be combined with topographic data and soil maps (GIS). Both the number of activities as well as the kind of activities that are taken up are analyzed. Landscape attractiveness turns out to be a driver of diversification. Daily recreation most frequently occurs close to national parks, green services are more likely to occur on relatively wet soils. Activities resulting from diversification might produce positive externalities: new activities have the tendency to emerge next to already existing ones, therewith explaining the formation of “hotspots” in the landscape. Finally, diversification was found to be sensitive to returns from primary agriculture production.     

The estimation of agricultural policy effects on soil erosion—An application for the bio-economic model MODAM

As agricultural policies affect land use, they have effects on the amount of soil erosion in agricultural regions through changes of the economic conditions of agricultural production. Prices of inputs and outputs, regulations and incentives can change, forcing or encouraging farmers to adopt new crop rotations. This paper shows how a bio-economic model can be used to describe and estimate the effects of policies on agricultural production and the risk of soil erosion at the example of a region in North-Eastern Germany. The model uses both an assessment tool that is based on a fuzzy-logic approach for the estimation of soil erosion risk of cropping practices, and a linear programming model, that simulates farmers’ economic behaviour under the assumption of gross margin maximisation being the main goal of farmers’ actions.The analysed policy options were both a targeted and an untargeted incentive programme for reduced tillage, and a restriction option where high erosive crops are not allowed on high erodible field types. The results show that policy changes can have an impact on soil erosion. Furthermore, soil conservation policies are shown to have different levels of efficiency in terms of reduced soil erosion related to the costs of the policy. In the case of this study, a restriction option was more efficient than the incentive options. The results of such simulations can serve as a decision support for the development of soil conservation policies and help to foresee the effects of general changes of agricultural policies.