Assessing the Adoption of Soil Health Beneficial Management Practices by Ontario Farmers

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Authors
Shah, Ananka
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Guelph
Abstract

Healthy soils are fundamental to building prosperous and resilient farms, to reduce GHG emissions and enhance overall environmental impacts from agriculture. Drawing from a survey of farmers (n = 247), the variation in adoption for 6 soil health BMPs: cover crops, crop rotations, no till, soil testing, conservation buffers and organic amendments is explored. The purpose of this study is to examine and analyze farmer adoption of and complementarity between soil BMPs from an individual and join probabilistic perspective using Ontario as a case study. Using univariate and multivariate models, the linkages between adoption of different conservation practices and the socioeconomic factors that affect the likelihood of adopting these practices are estimated. Furthermore, the motivations and barriers driving various farmer segments to adopt or not adopt these practices are analysed. The results can help guide policy and outreach efforts to promote the wider adoption of soil health practices amongst farmers.

Description
Keywords
adoption, soil health, BMP, motivations, barriers
Citation
Shah, Weersink, A., & Vyn, R. J. (2022). Adoption of Beneficial Management Practices to Improve Soil Health. Canadian Journal of Soil Science. https://doi.org/10.1139/CJSS-2021-0187