What motivates farmers to participate in the Nova Scotia environmental farm plan program? Evidence and environmental policy implications

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Abstract

Program stakeholders are interested in better understanding farmers' experience, and factors that affect farmer participation in the relatively new Environmental Farm Plan (EFP) program, implemented in several provinces in Canada. To increase relevance of the research findings to EFP program administrators and policy makers, the research methods emphasised determining whether relationships exist among program-related variables, and how such relationships affect farmers' decision choices and behaviour. Traditional farmer and farm attributes that have contrasting effects in agricultural innovation adoption and conservation management (namely age, and formal education completed), were not associated with EFP program participation. Farm income, years of farming experience, and type of agribusiness managed were associated with participation in the Nova Scotia EFP program. Although program participants tended to have higher incomes, overall, non-financial considerations dominated monetary considerations in Nova Scotia farmers' reasons for participating in the Nova Scotia EFP. Helping to publicize positive farm stewardship practices was reported as the most important reason for participating in the EFP scheme, followed by its use to help improve relationships with non-farming neighbours, and to comply with government environmental regulations. In contrast, and somewhat a surprising finding, minimizing potential farm environmental risk, program administrators' raison d'être for promoting the NS EFP, was ranked the lowest, with no respondent rating that as a “very important” or “extremely important” reason for participating in the EFP program.

Introduction

Environmental farm planning is a relatively recent initiative for farm environmental stewardship and management, adapted for several provinces in Canada. Global interest in environmental management systems (EMS) and agri-environmental schemes (AES) has increased in response not only to a need to address environmental problems arising from agriculture, but also because of growing public awareness about the benefits of agricultural resource stewardship. Consequently, farmers are voluntarily responding to a growing demand for public intervention to ensure compliance with environmental management programs (Stonehouse, 2000), by adopting and implementing environmentally sustainable programs such as the Environmental Farm Plan (EFP) scheme.

Environmental sustainability is one of five pillars of reform in the Canadian Agricultural Policy Framework for the 21st Century (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 2002). Interest of Canadian government in environmental farm planning was highlighted in a speech to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture by Lyle Vanclief, then Federal Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, when he noted that “every farm should have an environmental farm plan implemented within five years” (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 2001), along with an identity tracing and tracking system for farm products.

The EFP program has been implemented in Canada with modifications to suit the needs of individual provinces. Limited farmer participation prompted a 2001 review of a previous Atlantic Environmental Farm Plan program implemented in Nova Scotia (and other provinces in Atlantic Canada) by the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture (NSFA). The original Atlantic EFP program was modified for Nova Scotia conditions partly in response to concerns from farmers, and limited producer participation. Thus, an evaluation of farmers' experience with implementing the modified program can help improve promotion and widespread adoption. This need is particularly important because attitudinal characteristics of farmers are important determinants of the level of participation in voluntary environmental stewardship initiatives and, ultimately, program acceptance and success (Falconer, 2000). Increased promotion and more widespread adoption of the EFP scheme across the country require an understanding of key issues that affect program implementation. Design and implementation of farm conservation programs and policies can be enhanced by empirical study of the adoption and implementation process for such programs (Wandel and Smithers, 2000). Although a few studies have analyzed aspects of environmental farm planning, especially for Ontario (e.g., Furman, 1997, Klupfel, 2000, Robinson, 2006a, Robinson, 2006b), there are currently limited (if any) empirical studies on farmers' perspectives about key issues that affect adoption and implementation.

This study investigated Nova Scotia farmers' perspectives of key factors that affect adoption and implementation of the EFP program. One objective of the study was to use a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) framework to assess the unique characteristics of the NS EFP. In addition, given that Canadian experience in farm environmental sustainability is not much explored or publicized internationally, and to increase the importance and relevance of the NS EFP to program administrators and policy makers elsewhere, the NS EFP program was compared with similar agri-environmental schemes in the UK, other EU countries, and Australia. A second objective was to assess Nova Scotia farmers' experience with environmental farm planning. This includes assessing farmers' knowledge and awareness, and what EFP program attributes are important to farmers, along with respondents' perceptions about the Nova Scotia EFP scheme. Emphasis was placed on whether particular factors including farmer (e.g., age, experience, etc.) and farm attributes (e.g., farm income, and farm type), relate to level of participation in the EFP. A final objective was to provide policy recommendations on ways to improve adoption of the Nova Scotia EFP program.

Section snippets

Overview of Nova Scotia EFP program

Agri-environmental stewardship is influenced by both public policy, and farmers' attitude and decision making behaviour. Compared to many other OECD countries, agri-environmental policy in Canada is characterized by less stringent monitoring mechanisms and enforcement of environmental regulations, and with a preference for stakeholder negotiation, and voluntary compliance (as opposed to use of market-based instruments and standards). The ability to cost-effectively monitor and enforce farm

Research hypotheses

Hypothesis 1: Experienced farmers are more likely to adopt and implement environmental farm plan practices more readily than inexperienced farmers. Two constructs of farming experience used in this study are years of farming experience, and biological age of the farmer. In the literature, most analysts examine farmer experience in the context of (biological) age. However, there are contrasting findings about the association between age, and innovation and conservation program adoption. Carlson

Survey design and research methods

The two methodological approaches used in this study are consistent with the broad objectives of the study. In Canada, variants of the EFP are implemented in various provinces. Thus, a SWOT framework was used to identify the unique strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the EFP, as managed in Nova Scotia, Canada. A SWOT framework can be used to assess the characteristics (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) of an organization or a scheme such as the EFP program (Pride

Results and discussion

Among the 271 potential respondents surveyed, 83 useable questionnaires were returned, representing an overall response rate of 31%. Research surveys on other EFP program studies have yielded similar response rates. For example, both Furman (1997) and Klupfel (2000) reported response rates of 30% in studies on prospects for sustaining environmental farm planning in Ontario. By comparison, Yiridoe et al. (2003) reported a 38% response rate for a mail survey on adoption of ISO 14001 Environmental

Agri-environmental policy implications

Environmental farm planning requires long-term commitment from farmers, with little or no direct financial benefits, but with considerable environmental (i.e., non-market) benefits to society. The voluntary nature of current EFP programs implies that extrinsic forces such as government regulation and financial incentive schemes will likely have only limited long-term impacts compared to intrinsic motivations. Indeed, results from this study suggest that direct financial benefits were not a

Summary and conclusions

A previous Atlantic EFP program was adopted by a limited number of farmers in Nova Scotia due to concerns with extensive program documentation and other requirements, risks of disclosure of potentially incriminating information, and uncertainty of the impact of program adoption on farm returns. The NSFA responded with a modified NS EFP program. Farmer experience with the modified NS EFP scheme is important to promote more widespread adoption. The results from this study suggest that farming

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture for its cooperation and assistance with this study.

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