Supporting on-the-ground conservationists: The Conservation Practitioner Poll

Arbuckle, J. Gordon; DeLong, Catherine; Lindahl, Clare

doi:10.2489/jswc.2021.0827a

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 0 publications

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“…The Conservation Practitioner Poll [15] of NRCS and a nonprofit staff from six Midwest states showed that staff were interested in professional development in key content areas such as wildlife habitat and precision agriculture. However, content area ranked especially important by both DOI and AKIS frameworks, i.e., communication, marketing, and assisting behavior change, was ranked the lowest in the survey [27]. The survey pointed to the advisability of a greater discussion regarding programming and whose needs programs served.…”

Section: Identity and Emotional Aspectsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Program Evaluation of a Workshop on Prairie Strips for Farm Advisors: Framing the Co-Occurring Outcomes of Low Knowledge Acquisition and High Confidence

2022

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The agricultural conservation practice of prairie strips is new and novel. Prairie strips planted in row crop fields warrants greater adoption because the application decreases erosion; protects water quality; and supports habitat for wildlife and biodiversity, including pollinators. Prairie strips are a vegetative practice composed of diverse, native, and mostly perennial species that, as a community, follow principles of ecological succession; however, they must be managed for success. Farm advisor comprehension of practice characteristics is key for adoption by producers and landowners. This article reports on a developmental evaluation of workshops intended to change farm advisor knowledge, skills, and confidence related to prairie strips management for use in consulting with farmers and landowners. The study used pre-post instruments of knowledge and skill focused on prairie species identification and age of prairie strips planing; pre-then post-end of session questions were asked in a survey to report change in knowledge, skill, and confidence, as well as farm advisor situation. Advisors reported increased confidence, but acquisition of prairie knowledge and skills resulted in flat to lower scores. The paper explores the discrepancy of lower cognitive scores (knowledge and skills) compared to higher confidence. Explanations explore the phenomena of satisficing and perceived self-efficacy to explain the differential.

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Section: Identity and Emotional Aspectsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Program Evaluation of a Workshop on Prairie Strips for Farm Advisors: Framing the Co-Occurring Outcomes of Low Knowledge Acquisition and High Confidence

2022

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“…In a survey analysis, agricultural consultants indicated in-person contact works best with farmers and landowners, and that excessive application time and paperwork for some programs reduces number of clients worked with as well as the interest of producers. The consultants suggested that when new programs or changes in existing programs are being planned, policy makers should focus on streamlined paperwork, consistent rules and approaches across programs, and communicating changes far in advance of implementation [67].…”

Section: Applicability To Other States and Regionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Policy, Technology, and Management Options for Water Conservation in the Ogallala Aquifer in Kansas, USA

Steiner

Devlin

Perkins³

et al. 2021

Water

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The Ogallala Aquifer underlies 45 million ha, providing water for approximately 1.9 million people and supporting the robust agriculture economy of the US Great Plains region. The Ogallala Aquifer has experienced severe depletion, particularly in the Southern Plains states. This paper presents policy innovations that promote adoption of irrigation technology, and management innovations. Innovation in Kansas water policy has had the dual effects of increasing the authority of the state to regulate water while also providing more flexibility and increasing local input to water management and regulation. Technology innovations have focused on improved timing and placement of water. Management innovations include soil water monitoring, irrigation scheduling, soil health management and drought-tolerant varieties, crops, and cropping systems. The most noted success has been in the collective action which implemented a Local Enhanced Management Area (LEMA), which demonstrated that reduced water pumping resulted in low to no groundwater depletion while maintaining net income. Even more encouraging is the fact that irrigators who have participated in the LEMA or other conservation programs have conserved even more water than their goals. Innovative policy along with creative local–state–federal and private–public partnerships are advancing irrigation technology and management. Flexibility through multi-year allocations, banking of water not used in a given year, and shifting water across multiple water rights or uses on a farm are promising avenues to engage irrigators toward more sustainable irrigation in the Ogallala region.

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Effective Engagement Techniques Across the Agricultural Conservation Practice Adoption Process

Read,

Blair,

Wainger

2024

Environmental Management

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Encouraging agricultural landowners to adopt conservation practices is crucial to enhancing ecosystem services in privately-owned farm landscapes. To improve engagement with landowners and increase adoption rates, much research has been dedicated to investigating how different psychological, social, economic, and political factors correlate with adoption. However, these studies largely measure adoption as a discrete, binary event. Doing so obscures sequences of landowner decisions and engagement techniques that conservation practitioners use to encourage landowners’ progression through the adoption process. We report on two studies that contribute to the emerging literature on the agricultural conservation practice adoption process and the varying effectiveness of engagement techniques throughout. First, interviews with conservation practitioners in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, USA, yielded a preliminary model of the different stages in the adoption process and what techniques practitioners find effective at each stage. Second, an online experiment examined the effectiveness of a visualization intervention across two sequential outcomes in the adoption process, seeking further information and contacting a practitioner. Our results suggested that practitioners use a wide variety of engagement techniques, most of which are unique to a single stage in the adoption process, and that the effectiveness of the visualization technique varies substantially between different stages. Together these studies outline a suite of techniques that other practitioners may find effective at different stages of the adoption process, and suggest that research can better inform practice by accounting for variation in the effectiveness of different techniques across stages of adoption.

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Supporting on-the-ground conservationists: The Conservation Practitioner Poll

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

Program Evaluation of a Workshop on Prairie Strips for Farm Advisors: Framing the Co-Occurring Outcomes of Low Knowledge Acquisition and High Confidence

Program Evaluation of a Workshop on Prairie Strips for Farm Advisors: Framing the Co-Occurring Outcomes of Low Knowledge Acquisition and High Confidence

Policy, Technology, and Management Options for Water Conservation in the Ogallala Aquifer in Kansas, USA

Effective Engagement Techniques Across the Agricultural Conservation Practice Adoption Process

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