Adoption of conservation agriculture in Europe

Lahmar, Rabah

doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2008.02.001

Cited by 221 publications

(174 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…They all refer to shallower, non-inversion cultivation that is plough-free in which the soil is left undisturbed from harvest to planting and weed control is accomplished primarily with herbicides, limited cultivation, and, in more sustainable systems, with cover crops (Lahmar 2005).…”

Section: Reduced Tillagementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The emphasis was on soil and environmental improvements and farmers visiting the research trials, largely motivated by this aspect, became enthusiastic practitioners and advocates of the system (Ingram 2004 (Lahmar 2005).…”

Section: Emergence Of Reduced Tillagementioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, for the farmer, moving to a reduced tillage system represents a significant change from the conventional cultivation of ploughing (Lahmar 2005). Reduced tillage is not a one-off tillage technology but is a whole system approach, which requires daily judgements informed by knowledge of local agro-ecological conditions as well as continuous experimentation and adaptation (Davies and Finney 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Technical and Social Dimensions of Farmer Learning: An Analysis of the Emergence of Reduced Tillage Systems in England

Ingram

2010

Journal of Sustainable Agriculture

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Section: Reduced Tillagementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Emergence Of Reduced Tillagementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Technical and Social Dimensions of Farmer Learning: An Analysis of the Emergence of Reduced Tillage Systems in England

Ingram

2010

Journal of Sustainable Agriculture

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“…2010): it relies on ecological processes that are only very partially known, and very specific to a particular place (Lahmar, R. 2010;De Tourdonnet, S. et al 2013). Farmers, thus, need to change the way they make their daily decisions, and the objects they observe to found such decisions (De Tourdonnet, S. et al 2013).…”

Section: An Adoption Still Limited In Europementioning

confidence: 99%

Supporting transition toward conservation agriculture: a framework to analyze the learning processes of farmers

2017

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Conservation agriculture (CA) is based on 3 principles, namely reduced soil disturbance, permanent soil cover, and more complex and legume-rich rotations; and multiple studies have shown its positive impacts. Because CA relies on a variety of ecological processes, it is more deeply rooted in a specific ecological context than conventional agriculture. The complexity of these processes makes it difficult to elaborate general recipes to be applied by farmers, who therefore need to learn to make their own choices adapted to their own agroecosystem. Consequently, helping farmers to move toward CA requires supporting them in learning to develop their own practices. Farmers' learning remains poorly investigated at the individual level, with in particular very little work focusing on learning in CA. We hypothesize that the processes involved in learning to practice CA may differ from those involved in conventional agriculture: for instance, the current lack of detailed reference documents may induce farmers to experiment more. Against this background, we here aimed at describing how farmers experienced in CA learn, by qualifying their learning mechanisms and processes. To do so, we conducted five comprehensive interviews with farmers experienced in CA, and then inductively analyzed the data to explore the diversity of learning mechanisms involved, i.e. the elementary actions or cognitive activities which, organized together, constitute a learning process. We, thus, propose a descriptive framework of non-ordered and non-obligatory learning mechanisms that appear to be mobilized by farmers experienced in conservation agriculture, as a first step toward a deeper analysis of their learning processes. We further emphasize the often unintentional aspect of learning, as well as the importance, for farmers who wish to implement CA practices, of developing new standards of comparison. A better understanding of these learning processes would help improving extension services and training for farmers.

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“…In the global north most early research was undertaken in the USA from the 1950s, with Australia neglected until the 1990s (Sinden and King, 1990: 180) and Europe receiving only limited attention to date (Lahmar, 2010), with a stronger focus instead on Agri-Environment Schemes (AESs) adoption (Wauters et al, 2010). A recent review of studies from across the world of farmers' adoption of conservation agriculture by Knowler and Bradshaw (2007:25) argues, however, that there are "few if any universal variables that regularly explain" why relevant conservation agriculture practices, themselves highly context specific (Lahmar, 2010), have been taken up by farmers. This has led to further calls (Knowler and Bradshaw, 2007;Prager and Posthumus, 2010) for more contextualised studies of the type presented here.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the influence of farmer motivations on changes to soil erosion risk on sites of former serious erosion in the South Downs National Park, UK

2017

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Serious soil erosion occurred in the South Downs National Park, southern England in the years 1982-2006 and details of around 400 sites are contained in a database. In 2010 we revisited 85 of the most serious sites where erosion of >10m 3 ha -1 y -1 had been recorded in order to assess land use change and any conservation measures undertaken. At 79% of the sites land use change had resulted in a reduction in the risk of erosion, most notably at 28 sites with a shift to permanent grass from winter cereals. At only 21% of sites was the risk of erosion unchanged. Twenty two farmers responsible for 66 of the sites were interviewed. Land management practices had changed on all of the fields of interest to this study since the time of the serious erosion events, to those which have the potential to lower soil erosion risk. Sixteen interviewees claimed that erosion was a motivating reason for changing their practices, due to either experiencing on or on-and off-farm impacts firsthand (12), having knowledge or suspicion of serious erosion having occurred on their land prior to their management (three), or having no knowledge of any serious erosion on their land but just wanting to reduce overall erosion risk (one). Amongst the main changes reported are changes of land use from winter cereals to grass or to overwinter stubble which have undoubtedly reduced the risk of erosion. However, some changed practices claimed by farmers, such as along-the-contour-working, earlier sowing and the use of rollers may be of little value. Furthermore, deeper analysis of farmers' motivations regarding changes in land management practices suggests a complex picture in which a range of socio-economic influences come into play over time including financial incentives offered by agrienvironmental schemes which were found to be an important driver of change. Future changes in farming economics may therefore undermine the reduction in erosion risk in the longer term.

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Adoption of conservation agriculture in Europe

Cited by 221 publications

References 36 publications

Technical and Social Dimensions of Farmer Learning: An Analysis of the Emergence of Reduced Tillage Systems in England

Technical and Social Dimensions of Farmer Learning: An Analysis of the Emergence of Reduced Tillage Systems in England

Supporting transition toward conservation agriculture: a framework to analyze the learning processes of farmers

Understanding the influence of farmer motivations on changes to soil erosion risk on sites of former serious erosion in the South Downs National Park, UK

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