Farmers consideration of soil ecosystem services in agricultural management - A case study from Saxony, Germany

Dietze, Victoria; Hagemann, Nina; Jürges, Nataly; Bartke, Stephan; Fürst, Christine

doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.11.003

Cited by 19 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 46 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Unfortunately, besides the severe loss of ESV revealed in the present study, the reclamation of river shoal was also a great threat to the local water quality-cultivating crops next to the river enhances the chance of discharging pesticide residues and fertilizer directly into the water body [37,38]. Compared to farmland management in Germany or other European countries, cultivated lands in northeast China lack buffer-strips along river banks to isolate the water body from direct cultivation impacts [39,40]. On the other hand, the naturally fertile soil in northeast China is followed by an overload of instructions on how to manage the proper use of agricultural chemicals, leading to the prevalent single-dose and excessive applications [41], which undoubtedly exacerbates the pollution risk for local rivers.…”

Section: Gain and Loss Via Reclamation Of Cultivated Land Reserves Inmentioning

confidence: 66%

Reclamation of Cultivated Land Reserves in Northeast China: Indigenous Ecological Insecurity Underlying National Food Security

Wang

Liu

et al. 2020

IJERPH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The competition for land resources created by the need for food security and ecological security is intensifying globally. To resolve the issue of land scarcity in agriculture following rapid urbanization, China implemented its requisition–compensation balance policy of cultivated lands in 1997, the introduction of which consumed numerous areas of land, such as river shoal and bare land, through reclamation. Moreover, these reclaimed and newly cultivated lands were mainly distributed in the northern part of China. Most previous studies of this subject have only examined the overall balance of cultivated lands in well-developed regions, and there is a lack of knowledge about the indigenous gains and losses before and after reclamation in important areas such as northeast China. Therefore, this study selected two representative county-level units in northeast China as the study area to analyze the conversion of cultivated land reserves during 1996–2015, evaluate the performance of reclaimed cultivated lands in terms of quality and productivity and calculate reclamation-induced changes in ecosystem service value. The results indicated that by 2015 only 16.02% of the original cultivated land reserves remained unconverted; nearly 60% were reclaimed as cultivated lands and over 20% were converted to other land resources. River shoal and ruderal land were the primary resources for cultivated lands compensation, and marsh, bare land and saline-alkaline land were found to be converted the most thoroughly. The gain of 23018.55 ha reclaimed cultivated lands were of relatively inferior quality and lower productivity, contributing approximately 4.32% of total grain output. However, this modest gain was at the expense of a 768.03 million yuan ecosystem services loss, with regulating services and supporting services being undermined the most. We argue that even if northeast China continues to shoulder the responsibility of compensating for a majority of cultivated land losses, it still needs to carefully process reclamation and introduce practical measures to protect indigenous ecosystems, in order to better serve the local residents and ensure prolonged food security with sustainability.

show abstract

Section: Gain and Loss Via Reclamation Of Cultivated Land Reserves Inmentioning

confidence: 66%

Reclamation of Cultivated Land Reserves in Northeast China: Indigenous Ecological Insecurity Underlying National Food Security

Wang

Liu

et al. 2020

IJERPH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…(2) regulatory services-services that help to sustain an environment suitable for human life such as climate regulation, water purification, and flood regulation; (3) cultural services-these are mostly human-centred and refer to ecosystem components that are sources of inspiration for art, culture, and spirituality; and (4) supporting service-these are services that support the other three categories but are not a direct service to people for example nutrient cycling and soil formation [33]. Dietze et al [34], explain that in literature, although various definitions and classifications of ecosystem services exist, the concept of ecosystem services is well known by scientists but not by practitioners such as farmers.…”

Section: Classification Of Ecosystem Servicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This knowledge could be helpful in developing alternative agricultural land management policies that promote sustainable intensification efforts. Several authors have argued that the concept of ecosystem services is not perceived by practitioners such as farmers [35,36] while the literature on farmers' sources of information when making agricultural land management decisions is limited [34]. However, a study by Schuler [37] found that farmers had learned about the concept of ecosystem services during interactions with agricultural extension officers and conservation specialists.…”

Section: Sources Of Information For Farmersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another reason for farmers being less familiar with the term ecosystem services may be that currently there is no agreed definition of the term ecosystem services [80] and several terms such as 'nature's benefits to people' or 'nature's contribution to people' are used to refer to ecosystems services. Dietze et al [34] further explain that the term is still very much theoretical and more comprehensive terms would contribute much to enable the implementation in practice.…”

Section: Concept Of Ecosystem Services In Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, climate regulation was not valued as highly as the provision of food. However, climate regulation and agricultural production are highly interlinked [34] with the majority of greenhouse gas emissions coming from agricultural land uses such as deforestation and the application of chemical fertilisers and manure [82].…”

Section: Consideration Of Ecosystem Services In Agricultural Farming mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Exploring Farmers’ Management Practices and Values of Ecosystem Services in an Agroecosystem Context—A Case Study from the Eastern Cape, South Africa

Choruma

Odume

2019

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Globally, farmers remain the key ecosystem managers responsible for increasing food production while simultaneously reducing the associated negative environmental impacts. However, research investigating how farmers' agricultural management practices are influenced by the values they assign to ecosystem services is scarce in South Africa. To address this gap, a survey of farmers' agricultural management practices and the values they assigned towards ecosystem services was conducted in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Results from the survey show that farmers assign a high value on food provisioning ecosystem services compared to other ecosystem services. Irrigation and fertiliser decisions were mostly based on achieving maximum crop yields or good crop quality. The majority of farmers (86%) indicated a willingness to receive payments for ecosystem services (PES) to manage their farms in a more ecosystems-oriented manner. To encourage farmers to shift from managing ecosystems for single ecosystem services such as food provision to managing ecosystems for multiple ecosystem services, market-oriented plans such as PES may be employed. Effective measures for sustainable intensification of food production will depend on the inclusion of farmers in the development of land management strategies and practices as well as increasing farmers' awareness and knowledge of the ecosystem services concept.

show abstract

Farmers’ action space to adopt sustainable practices: a study of arable farming in Saxony

2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The urgency to address climate change, biodiversity loss, and natural resource degradation requires major changes in agricultural practices. Agricultural policy in Germany has so far failed to generate such changes; meanwhile, public demands for new regulations are met by widespread farmers’ protests. Against this background, an improved understanding of the factors influencing farmers’ uptake of sustainable agricultural practices is necessary. This study introduces the concept of action space to analyze the role of barriers to change which lie beyond farmers’ perceived immediate control. We apply this conceptual framework to the case of diversified crop rotations in Saxony (Germany) and combine semi-structured interviews and a survey to identify key barriers to change and their relative weights. We find that farmers feel rather strongly restricted in their action space to implement diversified crop rotations for sustainable agriculture. The most important barriers pertain to the market environment, which severely limits the feasibility of many crops. In addition, limited regulatory predictability as well as regulatory incoherence and limited flexibility restrict farmers in their action space. The role of resource availability within the farm businesses as well as availability and accessibility of knowledge is ambiguous between interview and survey results. The analysis of interactions indicates that multiple barriers form a self-reinforcing system in which farmers perceive to have little leeway to implement sustainable practices. These results emphasize the need to create an enabling market and regulatory environment in which sustainable practices pay off.

show abstract

Farmers consideration of soil ecosystem services in agricultural management - A case study from Saxony, Germany

Cited by 19 publications

References 46 publications

Reclamation of Cultivated Land Reserves in Northeast China: Indigenous Ecological Insecurity Underlying National Food Security

Reclamation of Cultivated Land Reserves in Northeast China: Indigenous Ecological Insecurity Underlying National Food Security

Exploring Farmers’ Management Practices and Values of Ecosystem Services in an Agroecosystem Context—A Case Study from the Eastern Cape, South Africa

Farmers’ action space to adopt sustainable practices: a study of arable farming in Saxony

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About