A farm systems approach to the adoption of sustainable nitrogen management practices in California

Improving nitrogen (N) fertilizer management in agricultural systems is critical to meeting environmental goals while maintaining economically viable and productive food systems. This paper applies a farm systems framework to analyze how adoption of N management practices is related to different far...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAgriculture and human values Vol. 38; no. 3; pp. 783 - 801
Main Authors Rudnick, Jessica, Lubell, Mark, Khalsa, Sat Darshan S., Tatge, Stephanie, Wood, Liza, Sears, Molly, Brown, Patrick H.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.09.2021
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Agrarian structures
Agricultural Economics
Agricultural Ethics
Agricultural land
Agricultural management
Agricultural practices
Agricultural production
Cropping systems
Decision making
Development Studies
Education
Environmental Sociology
Farmers
Farming systems
Farms
Fertilizers
Food
Humanities and Social Sciences
Irrigation
Irrigation practices
Management
multidisciplinary
Nitrogen
Philosophy
Regression models
Science
Sustainable Development
Watersheds
United States > US
California
Farm systems
Farmer adoption
Agricultural decision-making
Multivariate probit regression
Nitrogen management
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Summary:Improving nitrogen (N) fertilizer management in agricultural systems is critical to meeting environmental goals while maintaining economically viable and productive food systems. This paper applies a farm systems framework to analyze how adoption of N management practices is related to different farming operation characteristics and the extent to which fertilizer, soil and irrigation practices are related to each other. We develop a multivariate probit regression model to analyze the interdependency of these adoption behaviors from 966 farmers across three watersheds and diverse cropping systems in the Central Valley of California. Our analysis demonstrates that farmers adopt varying combinations or portfolios of practices, with the most common portfolio featuring a core set of fertilizer-focused practices. Irrigation infrastructure is an especially important farm operation characteristic for encouraging adoption of innovative practice portfolios that integrate water and fertilizer management. These findings highlight the ability for a farm systems approach to improve our understanding of farmer decision-making across diverse agricultural landscapes.
ISSN:0889-048X
1572-8366
DOI:10.1007/s10460-021-10190-5