Whether it be to appease the ever-growing demand for organics
or to become more environmentally friendly, conservation agriculture is on the
rise. As defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization, this agricultural
approach is described as having a focus on improved and sustained productivity,
increased profits, and food security while preserving and enhancing the
environment. There are many different practices that can fall under the title
of conservation agriculture, however most definitions include these general
ideas. To some, it seems like the obvious solution for everyone practicing
conventional agriculture, which generally uses a lot of inputs (fertilizers,
pesticides, herbicides) and intensive tillage, to begin transitioning to
conservation agriculture in order to sustain our planet. So why don’t they?
Under the broader umbrella of
improving water quality in the Red Cedar Watershed, the focus of my project
this summer was to see how conventional farmers can be encouraged to adopt best
management practices (BMPs). The BMPs that we concentrated on included no-till,
riparian buffers, cover crops, managed grazing, nutrient management plans, and
manure management. I was specifically interested in how social connections
might affect BMP adoption. Does the amount of social connections between
farmers increase their likelihood to adopt BMPs? Do trust networks between
neighbors influence BMP adoption?
To begin
exploring these questions, my research partner Elise Martinez and I drove
around the Red Cedar Watershed administering surveys that farmers either took
in person or mailed in. The survey includes questions about what conservation
practices the farmer uses, values, and interactions with county and agency
staff. Out of 777 active farmers in the watershed, we received 180 responses, a
response rate of 23%. We also conducted interviews with people involved in the
farming community and attended farm visits in order to augment our numbers with
qualitative data. For my questions that focused on social connections, I relied
on our last survey question which asked participating farmers to name up to
five people that they trust for farming advice. I used these connections to
build a social network map of the Red Cedar Watershed.
I focused
my results into four categories: a social network map, farmer connections and
heat maps, leisure, and visibility. The social network map, created through
KUMU, showed the relationship between the amount of BMPs used and the influence
of a neighbor’s BMP use. There is a significant positive correlation between a
farmer’s BMP use and their neighbors’ BMP influence, meaning that farmers who
were influenced by their neighbors use more BMPs. This relates directly to our
findings of farmer connections, which further illustrates that it matters for
farmers to be in the network. Farmers who are connected to fewer than one
person on average say that their neighbor’s BMP use hinders their own use, and
farmers connected to approximately three people say their neighbor’s BMP use
supports their own. Similarly, I created heat maps that show that the middle
area of the Red Cedar Watershed is the most connected, and that there is only
one small area in the watershed where farmers listed trusting their closest
neighbors. At first, this seems to say the opposite from the social network
map, however it is really bringing to light a missed opportunity…farmers ARE
influenced by their neighbors, however these are not the people they
immediately think to list as a trusted person. Therefore, it is important to
foster trusting relationships between farmers and their neighbors in order to
increase BMP use.
Next, using
statistics run through STATA, I created a regression line that represents the
relationship between leisure time and BMP use: the more a farmer values leisure
time, the more BMPs they use on their land. Therefore, it is necessary for
farmers to value and use leisure time to increase their social connectivity and
ultimately improve their conservation agriculture practices. Lastly, I created
a correlation chart that represents the relationship between the influence of a
neighbors’ BMP use and each type of BMP. The statistically significant BMPs
were cover crops, midfield buggers, riparian buffers, fencing, conservation
easements, managed grazing, and manure management, many of the BMPs that are
the most visible for farmers to see one another utilizing.
Overall, to
increase BMP adoption it is crucial for farmers to be socially connected in
order to build trust and share knowledge. It is clear that farmers trust one
another for farming advice and that knowledge is often adopted from neighbors.
This research and these findings are very important because they highlight how
interdisciplinary solutions need to be. Encouraging farmers to transition from
conventional to conservation agriculture is not just a matter of making it
financially feasible or increasing equipment access: it also includes the
necessity for farmers to receive worthy information from people that they trust,
typically information that is tried and true.
This summer
was my first experience doing a long term research project, and as a
sustainable agriculture student, these findings will always inspire me. I love
growing food and am so happy to be part of my farming community back home, and
having my research back up my instinct that social connectivity is vital in the transition to conservation agriculture is
very gratifying. Going forward with my higher education goals, it will be
important for me to keep in mind how much community matters, both in terms of
negating isolation and for trust and knowledge sharing. I hope these findings
will inspire others to foster these social connections between farmers moving
forward in the conservation agriculture world.
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