Summary: Agricultural producers in the Great Lakes Basin have received over $100 million from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative for agricultural conservation practices intended to influence on-farm decision making and improve water quality. This project will utilize socio-economic analytics to evaluate the effectiveness of those federal (and selected state) incentives, using multiple indicators of success to better understand obstacles and opportunities for enhancing on-farm decision-making to improve water quality. Based on the results, we will recommend ways to improve future investments through both institutional approaches as well as farm-scale techniques to maximize water quality benefits from public investments in Priority Watersheds.
A summary of results can be found at the Researching Effectiveness of Agricultural Programs main website and through the following survey reports:
Funding provided by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative via the Great Lakes Commission.
Publications
Walpole, H. and R.S. Wilson. 2022. “Why do we conserve? Identifying mechanisms in agricultural conservation practice adoption decisions”. Society and Natural Resources. https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2021.2019862
Tellez, C., R.S. Wilson and H. Walpole. 2021. “Overcoming barriers to government program participation for interested farmers”. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 76(6): 558-567. https://doi.org/10.2489/jswc.2021.00129