Search

Increased funding and resources have become available in recent years for agricultural producers to plant cover crops to improve soil health and prevent nutrient loss and erosion; however, cover crop adoption remains relatively low and has been uneven across different Midwestern counties. This study employed a controlled comparison method to investigate the social factors affecting cover crop adoption in Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana. In each state, the authors compared pairs of neighboring counties, where one county was a relatively higher adopter and the other was a lower adopter of cover crops, while controlling for variations in climate conditions. Results show that there were multiple factors explaining the difference in cover crop adoption among county pairs. Social factors included attitudes toward cover crops; conservation agency influence; presence of cover crop experts, advocates, and/or entrepreneurs; and collaboration between agencies and the private sector. Other important factors included topography, cattle raising, organic production, and local incentive-based programs. Among these, collaborations between agencies and the private sector played the most important role in explaining why some counties had higher rates of cover crop adoption compared to their neighbors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Correction to: Environmental Management (2023) https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-023-01823-y In this article, there are no gray highlights in Table 2; therefore, the text under the notes of Table 2, "The counties that are highlighted in gray are the high CCadopters in their respective pairs" has been changed. The original article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-023-01823-y. [Extracted from the article]

Agricultural decision support tools (DSTs) with weather or climate information can provide useful information to help stakeholders make operational farming decisions and adapt to increasingly variable weather or climate in the context of climate change. However, many of these DSTs are still not fully utilized. Understanding the use of DSTs can help identify strategies to promote their usage to more end-users. This study surveyed farmers (n = 2,633) and advisors (n = 2,719) across 12 states in the Midwest to draw comparisons on their usage of DSTs and factors influencing the usage. The advisors are more likely to take advantage of free and publicly available sources than farmers. Advisors are also more likely to agree on the usefulness of DSTs, feel social pressure to use DSTs, be concerned and perceive risks from variable weather, believe in climate change, and show positive attitudes towards climate change adaptation than farmers. Concerns about weather or climate, descriptive social norms, greater farm size, and general propensity to adopt a new technology are positively associated with higher adoption rate of DSTs for both farmers and advisors. Higher level of perceived behavioral control to deal with weather-related risks, injunctive social norms, gender (male), and age are positively associated with higher adoption rate of DSTs for only advisors. Positive adaptation attitude towards climate change and higher education level are positively associated with higher adoption rate of DSTs for only farmers. Unlike advisors, age is negatively associated with higher adoption rate of DSTs for farmers. Implications of our findings include DST educators leveraging social networks and reinforcing social norms to promote usage among current non-users, building up both farmers' and advisors' confidence and knowledge in using DSTs, understanding the role of advisors as "change agents" to promote DST usage among farmers, and connecting networks of "innovators" and "early adopters." With more and more DSTs developed, future scholarship can draw upon our findings to understand how to encourage DSTs adoption among current non-users and extend to other regions. •Advisors report significant higher use of online DSTs than farmers. •Concerns about weather/climate and descriptive social norms impact both farmers and advisors. •Perceived behavioral control and injunctive social norms only impact advisors. •Reinforcing social norms and connecting networks of early adopters can help promote DSTs. •Advisors could act as "change agents" to promote DSTs usage among farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]