Farmer and Farmland Owner Views on Spatial Targeting for Soil Conservation and Water Quality

Abstract

The U.S. Corn Belt is highly productive with respect to grain and livestock commodities but often neglects to deliver other benefits such as soil stability, nutrient retention, and clean water. New precision technologies and conservation planning frameworks offer opportunities to adapt the current agricultural system to meet environmental goals along with production by strategically placing best management practices (BMPs) to target and address specific in‐field resource concerns. To understand farmers' and farmland owners' willingness to participate in such targeting schemes, we conducted in‐depth interviews with 18 farmers and farmland owners whose fields were targeted for soil and nutrient loss in two watersheds in central Iowa. We examined their current application of BMPs and opportunities and constraints to further adoption. We found that farmers and farmland owners often recognized the importance of producing a diverse suite of on‐ and off‐farm environmental benefits but lacked the context, information, certainty, and strong incentives to manage for them. Interviewees were generally receptive to using technologies to target BMPs to areas with resource concerns but expressed concerns about applications on their own land. They specifically perceived challenges related to cost, management complexity, coordination with government programs, and loss of autonomy. For broad acceptance, a spatially targeted conservation approach would need to be paired with expanded partnerships, trusted technical service, and adaptation incentives to reduce farm‐level economic trade‐offs.

Farmer engagement using a precision approach to watershed-scale conservation planning: What do we know?

“…However, we also found that farmers' generalized support for conservation targeting translated into being receptive toward practice-placement options made specifically for their farm. This finding is in contrast with scholars who found that while farmers were generally receptive toward conservation targeting, they expressed concerns about the application of those planning options made for their own land (Zimmerman et al 2019). In the Zimmerman et al (2019) study, loss of autonomy was one of several concerns expressed by farmers.…”

“…This finding is in contrast with scholars who found that while farmers were generally receptive toward conservation targeting, they expressed concerns about the application of those planning options made for their own land (Zimmerman et al 2019). In the Zimmerman et al (2019) study, loss of autonomy was one of several concerns expressed by farmers. Indeed, as we found, having autonomy in the targeting process had a positive influence on farmers' receptiveness toward targeted conservation.…”

“…Scholarship on human dimensions of conservation targeting is growing. Much of our understanding is based off scholarship that either examines farmers' generalized perceptions toward conservation targeting (Arbuckle 2013), or actively engages farmers in generating targeted recommendations (Kalcic et al 2014(Kalcic et al , 2015Zimmerman et al 2019). We help advance the scholarship on human dimensions of conservation targeting by focusing on farmers whose fields were identified in a set of watershed-scale precision conservation options generated by the ACPF, a toolbox that provides a menu-driven approach to conservation prioritization and targeting.…”

“…Scholarship on understanding the human dimensions of conservation targeting, to the best of our knowledge, has examined farmers' general attitudes toward this concept (Arbuckle 2013). Scholars have also examined the role of engaging farmers and landowners to devise targeted recommendations for their farms (Kalcic et al 2014(Kalcic et al , 2015Zimmerman et al 2019). Others have examined the role of utilizing maps showing conservation priorities under the purview of collaborative and community-based conservation and management of natural resources (Gallo and Goodchild 2012).…”

Drive Mechanisms of Soil Quality Changes in Peri-Urban Areas

“…Third, some researchers begin to pay attention to the relationship between SQ protection and farmers' behavior. They have attempted to study how soil nutrient degradation could be affected by farmers' management measures with low external technology inputs [38,39], the influencing factors of farmers' land management decisions [40], farmers' cognition on land quality [41,42], and SQ evaluation based on FLUB [14].…”