Adoption of SWC measures in South Limburg (The Netherlands): Experiences of a water manager

In the loess area of the southern part of Limburg soil erosion is responsible for damage in the agricultural area and the associated runoff leads to flooding of urban areas and deposition of mud on the infrastructure.Since the second half of last century erosion hazards and damage have increased, due to more intensive tillage of the soil. With a general use of artificial fertilizers, organic matter content of the soil dropped to critical levels. Besides that, activities in agriculture like enlargement of fields, use of heavy machinery and activities outside the agricultural area like the extension of the built-up area and infrastructure led to less infiltration and consequently to more runoff. The expected change of the climate – more intensive rain showers – may even aggravate the erosion problem in the future. Moreover, the general policy of protection of the urban areas against flooding is developing to a higher protection level.The public sector is responsible for general policies to control erosion and to bring the damage of flooding back to acceptable levels. The basic principle is to tackle the erosion problem at the source, on the farmer's field with measures among others by the introduction of non-turning-ploughing and mulching and preservation and expansion the area of grassland. At local level, specific erosion control measures and financial arrangements are made. Municipalities are supposed to prepare and guide local level erosion plans, where measures are taken to complement the individual on-farm erosion control measures. Municipalities have to solve small-scale problems (bottlenecks) with local flooding and sedimentation of mud, especially on infrastructure. To prevent flooding the Water Authority has the task to develop the water infrastructure mainly to buffer water and to convey runoff at a safe discharge (grass strips, grassed waterways).In the combat against erosion the farmers and the farmer's organizations took their responsibility. The efforts resulted in 1990 in an Erosion Ordinance (EO) lately revised in 2003. The EO is primarily a responsibility of the farmer's organisations. In 2000 authorities involved in erosion and flood control signed a covenant in which generic and specific interventions were agreed upon to realize in a period of 4 years. Tough the agreed measures are only partly realized in this period, the intentions of the covenant are still valid. In 2003 the farmer organizations introduced in the revised EO a new instrument: the Farm Erosion Management Plan (FEMP) in which a farmer can take its own responsibility to keep erosion risk at an acceptable level and to organize his own farm strategy. By taking enough measures in the FEMP, the farmer gets dispensation of several measures otherwise due to the EO. Farmers can rely on EU-subsidies when applying erosion control measures (cross-compliance). Both the EO and the FEMP are part of the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).In spite of legislation, accepted responsibilities at different levels and financial support (incentives), erosion control interventions do not (yet) cover the whole area and not all stakeholders are equally motivated to implement and maintain the measures. In practice monitoring of the fulfilment of the EO and the FEMP is quite complicated, because of scattered land property, the complexity of the instruments and lack of (trained) controllers. At the moment the Water Authority is evaluating the effectiveness of measures taken by the FEMP in relation to general legislation of the EO.At municipality level several plans to solve the problems at locations where flooding and mud deposition occurs frequently are ready, but lack of funds will postpone execution of some of them.     

Land Tenure and the Adoption of Conservation Practices

We use a logit adoption model with data on 941 U.S. corn producers from the 1996 Agricultural Resource Management Study to analyze the influence of land tenure on the adoption of conservation practices. We extend previous analyses by distinguishing renters according to lease type and by distinguishing practices according to the timing of costs and returns. We find that cash-renters are less likely than owner-operators to use conservation tillage, but share-renters are not. Both cash-renters and share-renters are less likely than owner-operators to adopt practices that provide benefits only over the longer term (grassed waterways, stripcropping, and contour farming).     

Household adoption behaviour of improved soil conservation: the case of the North Pare and West Usambara Mountains of Tanzania

The mountains in the northeastern part of Tanzania have been experiencing declining soil fertility and severe soil erosion due to increased cultivation and other factors attributed to population pressure. This study gives the main results of an analysis of household adoption behaviour towards the use of improved soil conservation measures. An interdisciplinary analytical framework for analyzing household adoption behaviour is presented. The framework links three components of the adoption decision process: the perception of the erosion problem, the decision to use improved conservation measures and the level of investment or effort devoted to soil conservation among adopters. Data collected from a random sample of 300 heads of households was used to estimate logit models of perception of the erosion problem and of adoption of improved conservation measures, and a Poisson regression model of effort devoted to conservation. The results show that participation in promotional activities of soil and water conservation (SWC) programmes influences the adoption decision process at all three stages. Also, ranking of soil erosion as the priority problem in agricultural production, participation in labour-sharing groups and having off-farm income influence the willingness and ability to use improved soil conservation technologies and the level of soil conservation effort.     

Voters’ Acceptance of Land Use Policy Measures: A Two-Level Analysis

Sustainable spatial planning has become increasingly important during the last decades. Politics tries to counter land use related challenges such as urban sprawl by the implementation of policy measures. In a direct democracy, the implementation of policy measures requires citizens’ acceptance. This paper examines determinants of voters’ policy measure acceptance in the area of spatial planning. The study analyses 18 popular votes on spatial planning measures between 1984 and 2008 in Switzerland. A Bayesian multilevel modelling method is used to estimate both determinants at the individual level as well as the contextual level. Results show that the main individual factor for voters in Switzerland to accept spatial planning measures in a broad sense are the party affiliations of voters. Another important factor for the voting decision is being a homeowner. In contrast, whether voters live in urban or rural areas does not influence such voting decisions. At the contextual level, policy measures which contain incentive and market-based instruments have a higher probability to be accepted than bans and rules. Moreover, the degree of organisational capacity and conflict capability of interests concerned seem to influence democratic acceptance of spatial planning measures.     

台湾农地保护政策的演变及对大陆的启示

台湾50多年来的农业发展过程中进行过三次农地改革,每一次农地制度改革对台湾的农业、工业乃至整个社会都产生了十分重要的作用,形成了独特的"台湾模式"。台湾农地改革对大陆的启示是:土他改革是农业生产的推动力,不同的农业发展阶段需采取不同的农地保护政策,农地政策对农地数量的变化具有重要影响,土地改革需有详尽的法律规定作基础。大陆的农地保护应从数量、质量、生态三方面进行,建立产权明晰的土地政策,制定并颁布基本农田保护法规,避免农地非农化的随意性,优化土地利用结构提高农地利用效益。     

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.     

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.     

复合生态系统视域下生态涵养区建设对策研究——以冀西北地区为例

运用复合生态系统理论分析冀西北地区生态涵养区建设现状发现:自然系统中气候、土壤、水资源等因素在一定程度上不利于生产者生存发展,消费者与生产者之间能量流动不平衡;经济系统中循环经济模式发展水平低和产业结构不合理;社会系统中缺乏生态规划,体制机制不健全。冀西北生态涵养区未来发展,应保证自然系统得到优化并充分发挥生态功能;环境友好型经济长足发展;生态文明建设政策和法律、法规体系完善。这需要在生态调查的基础上科学开展生态评价,因地制宜制定冀西北生态功能区划,将该区分为坝上草原农牧生态区、冀北山地农业生态区、冀西北山地森林生态区、冀西北黄土丘陵农业生态区等一级生态区,以及若干二、三级生态区。并通过建立沟通协调机制、资金投入与使用机制、生态补偿机制、生态教育机制加以保障实施。选择坚守生态红线,开展环境综合整治,积极发展现代农林牧业,大力推进现代旅游业和高新技术产业和清洁能源产业,稳妥推进城镇化进程等路径实现生态涵养区建设目标。     

Adoption of Agricultural E-Marketing: Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior

In this study, the authors used the theory of planned behavior (TPB) as a base model to determine how attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control predict the intention of agricultural services professionals to adopt e-marketing of agricultural commodities. A convenient sample of 146 professionals from the public (n?=?61) and private sectors (n?=?85) were surveyed. Overall, results showed that the TPB model explained 94% and 71% of the variation in behavioral intent for public professionals and private professionals, respectively, with the remaining 6% and 29% relating to the other factors. Results for the public professionals showed that subjective norm and perceived behavioral control have a more important effect on adoption and that the effect of attitude was very small among professionals in private sector. Both groups selected the information services model as an appropriate in agricultural electronic marketing for local farmers so that agricultural services firms can offer only information services of farmers’ products without a direct role in buying and selling. Based on the results, it is recommended that to accelerate the adoption of e-marketing, its user-friendliness and advantages should be demonstrated to users via different platforms such as video presentations and workshops. In addition, the technology should be made available to potential users, and they should be encouraged and motivated to use it to ensure efficiency in the processing of transactions.