Beyond adoption: The persistence of conservation and climate-smart agricultural practices in the United States

TL;DR

This paper shows that farmers in the U.S. often stop using sustainable farming practices over time, which challenges assumptions about long-term behavior.

Contribution

The study introduces longitudinal field-level data to reveal low persistence in conservation practices, challenging expert predictions.

Findings

Persistence of cover cropping is low in Indiana, contrary to expert predictions.

Self-reported national data also shows low persistence of cover cropping practices.

Low persistence raises questions about conservation program design and ecosystem service valuation.

Abstract

Achieving sustainability goals requires that humans change their behavior not just once but persistently. Yet despite decades of research on the adoption of conservation and climate-smart agricultural practices, little is known about the extent to which these practices persist over time. One key reason is the lack of longitudinal, field-level data. Using ground-verified, longitudinal data on cover cropping across thousands of farm parcels in Indiana (USA), we find that persistence is low and contrasts sharply with the predictions made by Indiana conservation experts. We also find low persistence in a new national dataset of self-reported cover cropping by farm operators. The potential for low behavioral persistence in sustainable agricultural practices raises essential questions about the design of conservation programs and the modeling and valuation of ecosystem services.

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