Effects of outreach on the awareness and adoption of conservation practices by farmers in two agricultural watersheds of the Mackinaw River, Illinois

Abstract

Increased awareness of the contributions of nonpoint source runoff to the degradation of water quality in the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico emphasizes the need to increase conservation practices that reduce nutrient export from agricultural lands. To achieve long-term conservation goals in agricultural landscapes, it is important to understand farmers' perspectives on what practices are effective, practical, and economically attainable. We conducted a series of surveys, interspersed with focused outreach, of farmers in two agricultural watersheds in central Illinois in an attempt to better understand how outreach influenced their views on and adoption of conservation practices. Programs differed between the two watersheds in terms of the levels of intensity at which outreach efforts were conducted. Survey results suggest that more intensive outreach efforts, such as one-on-one landowner visits, localized workshops, and tours, can increase adoption of conservation practices associated with cost-share programs. Technical and financial assistance provided in a timely manner that did not interfere with planting and harvesting were major incentives among farmers in both watersheds to participate in cost-share conservation programs. Primary disincentives among farmers to enroll in cost-share programs were associated with multiple programmatic changes and complex application processes. Results indicate that there remains a need for outreach that increases awareness and implementation of conservation and best management practices specific to reducing agricultural runoff from tile-drained sources. Mitigation of nonpoint runoff will also require more effective management of nitrogen application rates and timing in order to conserve freshwater resources in Midwest agricultural landscapes and downstream waters. Integrated outreach teams comprised of stakeholders and local conservation agencies may lead to successful outreach efforts and reduce demands on limited conservation agency staff time. Key words: agriculture-best management practices-nitrogen-outreach effectiveness-streamThroughout the Midwest United States, there is increasing pressure to alter agricultural practices in ways that reduce nutrient exports to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. Although numerous state, federal, and nongovernmental agencies are working with landowners and farmers to address nutrient reduction, nonpoint source runoff from agricultural lands remains a major source of water quality impairment to freshwater (USEPA 2000) and marine (Turner and Rabalais 1994; Goolsby et al. 1999;Raloff 2004) (Lutz et al. 1984;Napier 2001;Wossink and Osmond 2002;Baerenklau 2005;Doll and Jackson 2009). This perspective posits that farmers are unlikely to adopt conservation production practices that have potential to reduce farm profit without adequate compensatory incentive payments. Collectively, these studies highlight the need to target soil and water conservation efforts that are tailored to reflect the farm economics and enviro...

Evaluating Agricultural Best Management Practices in Tile-Drained Subwatersheds of the Mackinaw River, Illinois

“…Outreach is essential to successfully increasing BMP implementation within large agricultural landscapes and targeting BMP placement to landscape areas with the highest contributions to water quality impairments and where BMPs will be most effective (Walter et al, 2007; Lemke et al, 2010). Even with 95% of the stream length protected by buffers, our results showed consistently higher export of TSS in the treatment watershed than in the reference watershed.…”

Factors Influencing Farmers’ Adoption of Best Management Practices: A Review and Synthesis

“…He found that conservation education training is the primary tool available to effect practice change. Extension services provide timely and effective information on practices as well as new technologies [76,88,101,102], and proximity to extension agents increases adoption [101]. Atwell et al [47], Kalcic et al [104] and Woods et al [62] found that interactions with local conservation staff frequently are positively correlated with adoption.…”

Adoption potential of nitrate mitigation practices: an ecosystem services approach

“…Water quality initiatives are often hampered by limited farmer participation which has in turn been shown to be hindered by limited outreach capacity and inflexible policy (Lemke et al 2010, Jordan et al 2011. Facilitating broader farmer participation requires understanding of comprehensive farmer perspectives in order to 'calibrate' appropriate and effective programming.…”

“…For example, Garbach et al (2012) found that silvopastoral conservation practices providing significant private benefits (primarily increased agricultural productivity) were adopted more readily than practices perceived to provide relatively greater public benefits, the latter of which had adoption rates benefiting from implementation of positive incentive payments. Cost-share and technical support (especially when provided in such a way to not conflict with timing of field operations) combined with International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability intensive outreach efforts was an effective mechanism for encouraging adoption of conservation practices in an Illinois watershed (Lemke et al 2010). Reimer et al's (2012) qualitative study concluded non-monetary incentives such as highlighting of off-farm benefits and the concept of community-based stewardship as a motivator could be used for the promotion of practices providing environmental (public) benefits beyond economic (private).…”