Overcoming barriers to agroecological practices: Assessing the role of financial incentive programs in facilitating cover crop adoption

Abstract

Industrial agriculture presents tremendous environmental challenges, and more sustainable management practices are needed to reduce negative environmental consequences. Increasing plant diversity in agroecosystems with cover crops is a promising solution to these challenges because they can provide a host of ecosystem services, including reducing nutrient pollution in waterbodies and improving farmers’ adaptive capacity in the face of climate change. Despite their benefits, however, farmers face a wide range of constraints across scales that limit the adoption of cover crops. Macro-level policies and economic pressures, in particular, strongly influence farmer agency. Thus, this study explored strategies used by cover crop farmers in the Great Lakes region to overcome barriers, with a particular focus on how financial incentive programs impact farmer decision making. In semi-structured interviews, we found that farmers overcame cognitive, economic and social constraints by experimenting with cover crops on their farms, adjusting their mindsets and expectations about agroecological practices, and seeking local knowledge from peers. In most cases, cover crops complemented the use of conservation tillage practices, and farmers participated in government financial incentive programs to lower their financial risk. Farmers indicated that financial incentive programs, while instrumental in encouraging cover crop adoption, may be limited in effectiveness if they fail to address other constraints related to knowledge and risk management. Decision-makers can learn from these early cove adopters to design policies that leverage existing resources and provide a clearer path for the adoption of agroecological practices.r crop