How US farmers experience cover crop adoption

Understanding how farmers adopt conservation farming practices is critical for advancing agricultural sustainability. Substantial research has explored the drivers and barriers to adoption; however, studies continue to oversimplify adoption—resulting in a limited understanding of adoption complexity, the efficacy of policy and cost-share incentives, and the environmental impacts of adoption. Many studies fail to measure important nuances of adoption, and findings from studies with broad scopes often yield mixed results, with few factors consistently explaining adoption behavior. Drawing on interviews with 86 farmers conducted across 9 US states, we apply a comprehensive farmer adoption framework with four dimensions of adoption to advance the understanding of farmers’ decision-making processes and perceptions of cover crop adoption. We explore how farmers conceptualize the adoption process and engage with four dimensions of adoption (longevity, entirety, variability, and complementarity)—demonstrating how farmers consider and manage each dimension in distinct, but dynamic ways. Our findings offer insights into the ways farmers engage with conservation practices and experience adoption. We advance understanding of adoption by illustrating the multidimensionality of adoption decision-making in context and offer pathways for more accurate measurement of adoption, with implications for evaluating cost-share program efficacy and ecological outcomes of practice use. (revise and resubmit, Agriculture and Human Values)