Farmer perspectives on benefits of and barriers to extended crop rotations in Iowa, USA

Abstract

The highly specialized maize (Zea mays L.) and soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] production system that dominates midwestern U.S. agriculture has led to widespread on-farm and off-farm degradation of and damage to natural resources. The practice of extending maize-soybean rotations with small grains and forages has great potential to balance production and environmental goals, but adoption of these practices is low. Because little is known about farmers' perspectives on extended rotations, we conducted social survey research with Iowa farmers to address this knowledge gap. Results show that farmers understand the potential benefits of extended rotations using small grains, but they perceive major barriers to use. The highest-rated barriers were structural, such as lack of markets. Structural barriers cannot be easily addressed by individual farmers, indicating that efforts to address negative impacts of specialized commodity production through extended rotations with small grains will require transformative changes in agri-food policies, programs, and ultimately markets.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

What would it look like? Visualizing a future US Corn Belt landscape with more table food production

“…Mid-scale table food production could be another way to improve diversification on farms and increase sustainability by protecting crop genetic diversity and in turn food security for the region (Esquinas-Alcázar, 2005; Esquivel et al, 2021). However, producers in Iowa perceive major barriers, especially for accessing markets which makes incorporating small grains into extended rotations difficult (Weisberger et al, 2021). Uncertainties about climate change and infrastructure are additional barriers for fruit and vegetable producers (Johnson and Morton, 2015).…”

“…The lack of effective supply chain opportunities and infrastructure for small- and mid-scale producers in the region impacts multiple factors assessed in our study (e.g., processing, off-farm jobs, loan access). Enabling mid-scale table food production must include addressing structural barriers as farmers will struggle to address them independently (Weisberger et al, 2021). Values-based supply chains could enable regional food systems to balance the needs of US producers and consumers (Feenstra and Hardesty, 2016).…”

Effect of alfalfa on subsurface (tile) nitrogen and phosphorus loss in Ohio, USA

“…Despite these potential benefits, the adoption rate of perennial crops by farmers is minimal in the midwestern United States (Olmstead & Brummer, 2008). Some barriers that discourage farmers from integrating perennial crops into their traditional cropping systems include current government policies that subsidize a narrow set of commodities, market dynamics, and profitability concerns due to the additional costs associated with perennial crop production such as machinery and labor and the low yield of alfalfa in the establishment year (Weisberger et al., 2021). Therefore, broader efforts, including government policies that encourage diversification of agricultural landscapes and reward environmental services provided by farmers, may be necessary to overcome these barriers to achieve greater adoption of perennial crops.…”

Defining features of diverse and productive agricultural systems: An archetype analysis of U.S. agricultural counties

“…Moreover, crop diversity provides greater stability of total food and nutrition supply (Renard and Tilman, 2019) and economic value (Birthal and Hazrana, 2019;Sánchez et al, 2022) as crops responses to extreme weather conditions and changes in climate vary (Elmqvist et al, 2003). In addition, the importance of these biophysical constraints suggest that greater focus needs to be placed on building markets for non-commodity crops that are well suited to the biophysical realities of major agricultural regions (Weisberger et al, 2021). The HD-LP counties examined in this study suggest that despite relatively low productivity for commodity crops, economic diversification via livestock production and increased crop diversity have enabled farmers to maintain similar net income levels as their counterparts in systems with high productivity of commodity crops.…”

“…Recent changes to crop insurance that now allow farmers to insure crops other than just the staple grains that have been covered for several decades should provide farmers with greater flexibility in crop choice (Goeringer and Leathers, 2015;Zulauf, 2020). However, in order to counter current global market forces federal tools are needed that place more direct pressure on large commercial agricultural operations to adopt more ecologically-aware cultivation practices and that build markets for alternative crops and incentivize cultivation of new and different crops (Weisberger et al, 2021;Chapman et al, 2022).…”