The trouble with cover crops: Farmers’ experiences with overcoming barriers to adoption

作者：Gabrielle Roesch‐McNally, Andrea Basche, J. Gordon Arbuckle, John Tyndall, Fernando E. Miguez, Troy Bowman, Rebecca Clay · 发表于：Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems · 年份：2017 · DOI：10.1017/s1742170517000096 · 被引用次数：299 · 研究领域：Agricultural Innovations and Practices、Rangeland and Wildlife Management、Diverse Educational Innovations Studies

Abstract Cover crops are known to promote many aspects of soil and water quality, yet estimates find that in 2012 only 2.3% of the total agricultural lands in the Midwestern USA were using cover crops. Focus groups were conducted across the Corn Belt state of Iowa to better understand how farmers confront barriers to cover crop adoption in highly intensive agricultural production systems. Although much prior research has focused on analyzing factors that help predict cover crop use on farms, there is limited research on how farmers navigate and overcome field-level (e.g. proper planting of a cover crop) and structural barriers (e.g. market forces) associated with the use of cover crops. The results from the analysis of these conversations suggest that there is a complex dialectical relationship between farmers' individual management decisions and the broader agricultural context in the region that constrains their decisions. Farmers in these focus groups shared how they navigate complex management decisions within a generally homogenized agricultural and economic landscape that makes cover crop integration challenging. Many who joined the focus groups have found ways to overcome barriers and successfully integrate cover crops into their cropping systems. This is illustrated through farmers' descriptions of their ‘whole system’ approach to cover crops management, where they described how they prioritize the success of their cover crops by focusing on multiple aspects of manage...