ABSTRACT:
The Soil Conservation Service and the Cooperative Extension Service play important and complementary roles in providing farmers and landowners with information about soil conservation. Like other organizations, they have somewhat different goals, missions, and clientele, as well as different views on the nature of problems and their solutions. This study, based on a survey of CES and SCS staffs in Illinois, focuses on their views about no-till in general and about specific attributes of no-till, its comparative advantages and disadvantages, and perceived effectiveness of alternative remedial strategies. The results reflect points of agreement and disagreement between the staffs of the two agencies. There is general agreement on soil loss as a problem in their respective areas, on many of the costs and benefits of no-till, and on some of the advantages of no-till compared with conventional tillage. There are also wide differences of opinion and attitudes toward the use of no-till between the two staffs. SCS staff people support the use of no-till, while CES staffers are more cautious, even skeptical at times. The latter see more potential problems with no-till, are more qualified in their assessments, and express more doubts about the effectiveness of means for addressing soil conservation. Disagreements appear to exist over strategy, the degree to which no-till should be promoted, and the benefits of no-till, but not over the idea of no-till in general.
Footnotes
J. C. van Es and A. J. Sofranko are professors of rural sociology, Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 61801. The research was carried out as part of a cooperative research agreement between the Soil Conservation Service and the University of Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station. The authors are solely responsible for the content of the article.
- Copyright 1988 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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