United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Environmental Research
Laboratory
Athens GA 30613
Research and Development
EPA-600/S5-84-001 May 1984
Project Summary
Sociological Factors in the
Adoption of Agricultural Best
Management Practices
Peter J. Nowak, Peter F. Korsching, Donald G. Wagener, and Thomas J. Hoban
Since nonpoint source pollution from
agricultural lands is to be controlled by
best management practices (BMPs),
an understanding of those factors that
affect farmer behavior should help in
designing incentive systems that
encourage the implementation of such
practices. This study attempts to deter-
mine the relevant socioeconomic,
demographic and agricultural factors
that influence farmer adoption and
maintenance of agricultural BMPs.
Hypotheses concerning BMP
adoption were based on a modified
adoption-of-innovations model. The
model was used to organize the
numerous factors related to the
adoption of BMPs into a framework
that could be researched. To test the
hypotheses, data were collected on 193
farm operators in three watersheds in
east-central Iowa through personal
interviews. The three watersheds were
similar in size, topography, soil
conditions, farm operation characteris-
tics and socioeconomic characteristics
of the farm operators. Fourtypes of var-
iables—personal and socioeconomic
characteristics of the farm operator,
farm enterprise characteristics, land
ecological characteristics, 'and
institutional factors-were examined
for their effect on the adoption of
BMPs. A two-stage regression analysis
was used.to eliminate insignificant
variables, leaving only significant
variables for the final reduced
equations.
Results indicate that personal and
socioeconomic characteristics of the
farm operator are relatively unimpor-
tant in explaining BMP adoption. Farm
firm characteristics and land ecological
factors are both more important. By
their nature, however, land ecological
characteristics cannot be affected by
policy, and although farm firm charac-
teristics can be affected by policy, such
policies are typically neither politically
nor socially acceptable. The most
important variables in explaining
adoption of BMPs are the institutional
factors. These factors also can be most
easily affected by changes in policy.
Implications of the findings relate pri-
marily to institutional support of water
programs.
This Project Summary was developed
by EPA's Environmental Research Lab-
oratory, Athens, GA, to announce key
findings of the research project that is
fully documented in a separate report of
the same title (see Project Report order-
ing information at back).
Introduction
The control of pollutants generated by
nonpoint sources is necessary if water
quality goals in many parts of the country
are to be achieved. Agricultural nonpoint
sources contribute significant amounts of
these pollutants. Society's concern for
improving water quality is reflected in the
Federal Water Pollution Control Act
Amendments (FWPCA) of 1972 (PL 92-
500) and in the Rural Clean Water
Program (RCWP) of 1977 (PL 95-217).
Section 208 of FWPCA requires states to
develop area-wide plans for controlling
nonpoint sources of water pollut;
(including agricultural sources) s>
RCWP has provided a frarr-
funding mechanism for irr
program. Since the c-
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of nonpoint source pollution from
agricultural land is directed at site-
specific management it is essential that
feasible Best Management Practices
(BMPs) be selected.
BMPs, by definition, are those
technologies that have the potential to
enhance environmental quality. They
provide combinations of land use,
conservation practices, and management
techniques that, when applied as a
management system to a unit of land,
result in the opportunity for a reasonable
economic return within acceptable envi-
ronmental standards. Nevertheless, even
though these BMPs have been identified
and are continually being refined, there
has been only marginal success in their
implementation. Their potential benefit
will only become real to the extent that
they are actually implemented.
To evaluate the feasibility of such
practices, a large multidisciplinary field
evaluation project was conducted in
Four Mile Creek of Iowa. The Iowa Field
Evaluation Project (IFEP) comprised
numerous studies to evaluate the cost
effectiveness and implementability of
various BMPs. The current study
examines the social and institutional
factors that influence the adoption and
maintenance of agricultural BMPs by
farmers and landowners. The role of
institutional factors, topographic charac-
teristics of the land, structure of the farm
organization, and personal characterist-
ics of the farm operator are discussed
relative to their influence on behaviors
that have the potential to enhance water
quality and conserve the soil.
Methodology
To examine the process of the adoption
of BMPs in this research, a general
model for the adoption of innovations was
modified and utilized. The model is shown
in Figure 1. According to the model, the
adoption of BMPs is basically a recursive,
temporal process in which the farmer
begins with knowledge or awareness of
the BMP. The next step is evaluation of
the BMP in terms of how it would fit into
the farmer's operation and what benefits
or costs (including risks) would be
associated with adopting it. Based on the
evaluation of the BMP, the farmer will
decide to either adopt or reject the BMP.
Additional time, knowledge, and
experience will either confirm or refute
the initial decision, causing the farmer to
continue in the existing course or to take
a new course of action . As can be seen in
the model, personal and socioeconomic
Farm Operator
Personal and Socioeconomic
Characteristics
Farm Firm ^ Knowledge —^ Evaluation
Characteristics
- Decision
(Adoption)
(Rejection)
f~ Confirmation
(Continued Use)
(Discontinuance)
(Later Adoption)
(Continued Rejection)
Institutional
Factors
Figure 1. Model of Best Management Practice A dopt ion
Source: Rogers and Shoemaker (1971).
characteristics of the farm operator,
characteristics of the farming operation,
the nature of the larger social system,
types of communication channels and
amounts of communications, and the
perceived characteristics of the BMPs all
potentially affect the adoption process.
This study examines a simplified
version of the adoption model as shown
in Figure 2. Agricultural BMPs largely
consist of existing technologies with
which most farmers are already familiar.
The issue then is not so much one of an
awareness of the technology but rather
one of awareness of the problem for
which the technology is an appropriate
solution. Therefore, this analysis focuses
specifically on the decision-making stage
of the adoption process-- the effect of
personal and socioeconomic character-
istics of the farm operator, farm enter-
prise characteristics, land ecological
characteristics and institutional factors.
Research Setting
Three agricultural watersheds in east-
central Iowa were selected for study. The
sample population was composed of all
persons who operated land within these
watersheds. The original research design
. allowed for the control of various factors
impinging on the adoption of BMPs. This
design included three geographically
separated watersheds of similar size,
Farm Operator
Personal and Socioeconomic
Characteristics
Farm Firm
Characteristics
Institutional
Factors
Adoption
or
Rejection
Figure 2. Simplified Version of the Adop-
tion Model Used in the Study.
topography, soil conditions, farm
operation characteristics, and
socioeconomic characteristics of farm
operators.
The Four Mile Creek Watershed was
the treatment area. This watershed was
to receive the full impact of monetary
incentives and educational and technical
assistance programs to implement BMPs.
The primary control area, the Rock Creek
Watershed in Cedar County, was to
receive only special educational and
technical assistance programs. The other
control area. Mud Creek Watershed in
Benton County, was to receive neither
special monetary incentives nor
educational and technical assistance,
except as a part of the regular agricultural
production and conservation programs of
county, state, and federal agencies.
Data Collection
The study involved a series of four
contacts with respondents over a two-
year period. The initial contact involved
personal interviews with every rural
resident within the physical boundaries
of the respective watersheds. A
screening procedure allowed for the
determination of residents who did not
operate farmland in the watersheds. An
attempt was also made to contact farm
operators who operated land within the
watershed but who resided outside its
boundaries. A total sample (N) of 193
respondents was identified for inclusion
in the study (Four Mile Creek, N = 73; Mud
Creek, N = 65; Rock Creek, N = 55).
The first questionnaire obtained
information on demography and
background, relevant attitudes (e.g.,
agrarianism, environmentalism, risk
preference, innovativeness, etc.),
organizational affiliation, community
orientation, and the use and perceptions
of various soil, water, and energy
conservation practices. The initial
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questionnaire served to establish a large
baseline of data against which future
survey information would be compared
and contrasted. In addition, it provided a
cross-sectional description of a large
number of sociological variables on the
need for and use of BMPs.
The second contact with respondents
was a telephone survey. Its subject
matter focused on farm enterprise char-
acteristics. These included measures of
the size of the farm operation,
organizational type, tenure, on- and off-
farm labor, farm decision making, and the
acceptability of conservation policy
alternatives.
The third and fourth contacts involved a
personal interview and a mail question-
naire. The personal interview consisted of
an identification of the field boundaries
for all land operated by respondents who
farmed any land in the study watersheds.
Questions were asked about cropping
and rotations, ownership status, use of
implements, and average crop yields for
each of the identified fields. In addition,
farmers were asked questions about their
awareness, knowledge, and use of BMPs;
about the main causes of and solutions
for their soil erosion and water quality
problems; and about their contacts with
soil and water conservation information
sources.
The primary purpose of the third
contact was to obtain the necessary
information to calculate erosion and pro-
ductivity potential indicators of land, on a
field-by-field basis. These physical
factors could then be juxtaposed with
demographic, perceptual, and attitudinal
factors in order to identify their relation-
ship to the need for and use of BMPs.
The fourth respondent contact resulted
from a mail-back questionnaire left with
respondents at the time of the third
interview. This questionnaire assessed
attitudes on the continuing problem of
soil erosion and water quality, attitudes
toward general problems faced by
farmers, and information on general farm
practices and machine use and
ownership. Information from this survey
was used in conjunction with information
from the previous surveys, and in com-
parison and contrast with information on
personal characteristics of the
respondents, farm firm characteristics,
and physical and mechanical information
about the farm.
Overall, the four respondent contacts
provided an extensive set of data of farm
operators' personal and socioeconomic
characteristics, farm enterprise character-
istics, and institutional facors related to
the adoption and maintenance of BMPs.
Findings
The reader should note that these are
cross-sectional results from an
experimental design originally created to
capture time series data. An important
intent of this research design was to
measure differences in change of
conservation behavior over time by the
farmers in the three watersheds. The
early termination of the project prevented
the detailed measurement of the effects
of special economic incentives and
educational programs in the Pour Mile
Creek Watershed. Thus, there is no way
of assessing whether the lack of
systematic differences in variables
explaining adoption behavior between
the experimental and control watersheds
is due to ineffectiveness of the special
economic incentives, the educational
programs, or some other factor. All that
can be stated is that there does seem to
be some relationship between certain
factors and the adoption of BMPs.
Results showed that gross farm in-
come, a measure of operation scale, was
inversely related to the adoption of BMPs.
Although tenure was also related to the
use of BMPs (average crop residue), the
most consistent farm enterprise variable
was use of credit. Use of credit was
positively related to BMP adoption in both
the experimental and control watersheds
and to average crop residue in the control
watershed.
Personal factors are frequently cited as
being important for explaining
conservation behavior. Yet available data
provide only little support for this
argument. Of course, it could be argued
that the manipulation of the personal
factors was part of the proposed
experimental design, and thus the true
efficacy of these factors has yet to be
tested. Only one personal factor—risk
propensity—was determined to be
significant. Risk propensity was
interpreted to be directly related to the
level of residue maintained in the control
watershed, thus providing a measure of
conservation tillage.
From the standpoint of agencies
working with soil and water
conservation, the most positive finding of
this research is the strong and consistent
relationship between BMP adoption and
institutional support. Cost sharing and
whether a farmer had a Soil Conservation
Service (SCS) conservation plan are
significant in both the experimental and
control watersheds. Although the special
treatments in terms of additional
financial incentives and educational
programs were still limited in the
experimental watershed when these data
were collected, the results seem to
indicate that even under normal
operating conditions, institutional
support has relatively high efficacy.
Because the experimental research
design was not fully implemented, policy
implications are limited and drawn with
extreme caution. There are, however,
some insights relating to the institutional
mechanisms that are relevant to soil and
water conservation programs. For
example, the results from this research
indicate that while cost sharing of
agricultural practices is important, other
institutional factors such as educational
programs and technical assistance may
be equally important. Therefore, a policy
to increase educational programs and
technical assistance may be cost
effective. Results also indicate that,
surprisingly, the majority of farmers do
not feel that there is too much
government involvement in the areas of
soil erosion and water quality. The
analysis also showed that diffusion of
conservation tillage technologies
through a social system has the same
general pattern as other practices and
innovations. This information provides
agencies with a proven framework for
developing educational and technical
assistance programs.
A second finding relating to the
development of agricultural nonpoint
source policy relates to efforts in
developing SCS conservation plans with
farmers. This research has shown that
having an SCS plan increases the use of
BMPs. A program of more intense work in
conservation plan development for
farmers could more formally incorporate
1) identification of different on- and off-
site problems, 2) listing of a range of
alternative solutions, 3) agronomic and
engineering characteristics of these
alternatives, and 4) economic costs and
benefits associated with these
alternatives.
The final implication for developing
policy relates to credit. Although the use
of credit was treated as a farm firm
characteristic in this research, it is also
an institutional factor in that the
availability of credit is under institutional
control. As the results indicate, past use
of credit is positively related to BMP use.
This makes the availability of credit a
potentially effective policy alternative,
i.e., directing incentive payments such as
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cost sharing. The development of a credit
system with reasonable interest rates
and an allocation system based to some
degree on financial need could greatly
increase the use of BMPs.
P. J. Nowak, P. F. Korsching, D. J. Wagener, and T. J. Hoban are with Iowa State
University, Ames, IA 50011.
Thomas E. Waddell is the EPA Project Officer (see below).
The complete report, entitled "Sociological Factors in the Adoption of Agricultural
Best Management Practices," (Order No. PB84-170 836; Cost: $14.50, subject
to change) will be available only from:
National Technical Information Service
5285 Port Royal Road
Springfield, VA 22161
Telephone: 703-487-4650
The EPA Project Officer can be contacted at:
Environmental Research Laboratory
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Athens, GA 30613
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