Adoption of conservation production systems in two Ohio watersheds: A comparative study

ABSTRACT:

Data were collected from land owner-operators who were managing farms within the Darby Creek watershed and within a selected area in the upper Scioto River watershed in central Ohio during the late winter of 1998 and the summer of 1999. Information was collected to assess the types of agricultural production systems used by farmers within each watershed during the previous growing season. Information about agricultural production systems being used in each watershed was compared to determine if farming practices differed between the two watersheds. Study findings revealed that agricultural production systems employed by farmers within the upper Scioto River watershed were not significantly different from those being used within the Darby Creek watershed. This finding was inconsistent with research expectations derived from the traditional diffusion model. Farmers within the Darby Creek watershed had been expected to report adoption of significantly more conservation production systems because they had been exposed to more extensive conservation programming designed to motivate them to adopt and to use conservation practices. Farmers within the upper Scioto River watershed had been exposed to relatively little conservation programming even though the two watersheds were located approximately 40 miles apart. Study findings strongly suggest that massive human and economic resources employed to motivate land owner-operators to adopt and use conservation production systems within the Darby Creek watershed were not successful in accomplishing that objective.