Socioeconomic and Environmental Factors that Influence Adoption of No-Till in the Great Plains.

In the last few decades, many conservation practices have been introduced that provide a host of environmental benefits and contribute to long-term agricultural sustainability. One of those practices, conservation tillage, has been found to reduce soil erosion, improve soil structure, and increase soil organic matter in comparison with conventional methods. While adoption of no-till by farmers has increased, barriers still exist to widespread adoption. There are likely a variety of socioeconomic and environmental factors that prevent adoption and those factors may vary by region. Our objective was to use household farmer surveys and other economic, social and environmental data sources to determine which factors had the largest influence on adoption of no-till in the Great Plains. We used the Conservation Tillage Information Center (CTIC) adoption statistics to identify three regions for analysis; north-central Montana, central South Dakota and northeastern Colorado. Household surveys of roughly 50 farmers were conducted in 2-3 neighboring counties in each region. Participants were asked several questions about their socioeconomic condition and current and past management practices on their farms. Data from the surveys along with other data sources will be analyzed for each region using decision tree methods. This method of analysis is especially appropriate for this study in that it can handle both numerical and categorical data and can represent complex relationships in a format that is relatively simple to understand and interpret.