Joint Adoption of Conservation Agricultural Practices by Row Crop

Conservation agricultural production systems for row crops are usually comprised of a number of integrated conservation practices including conservation tillage, cover crops, soil testing, crop rotations, buffers, precision agriculture and integrated pest management. Current incentive structures for promoting the adoption of conservation programs rely on a piece meal approach for adopting conservation systems. That is, the adoption of practices is done one step at a time, which can lengthen the adoption process and potential for adverse economic and environmental consequences. The purpose of this paper is to examine the joint adoption of conservation practices by farmers in Alabama and factors that might impact this type of adoption. A survey of farmers in three watersheds was conducted in 2005 examining the adoption of conservation practices by producers. The survey was used to collect data about the adoption of farming practices, incentives for adopting conservation practices, farm characteristics and demographics of Alabama farmers. Survey data were statistically modeled to derive conditional measures of correlation to examine the impact of different socio-economic factors on the joint adoption of conservation practices. This information can be used to help develop outreach and incentive programs for promoting the adoption of conservation practices and systems by farmers. For example, if farmers have a higher likelihood of using winter cover crops in rotation with conservation tillage practices, then incentives might be developed that promote both practices jointly