Enrollment Restrictions and Conservation Practice Adoptions by Midwestern Farmers

Abstract

Using a mixed-mode survey of 424 farmer respondents in the Boone and North Raccoon River watersheds in Iowa, we examine the influence of enrollment restrictions on farmers’ preferences for conservation practices using a discrete choice experiment and a random parameters logit model. Our findings indicate prospective farmer participants favor conservation contracts with enrollment requirements on new, additional practices. Comparisons with EQIP reveal decreased mean willingness-to-accept for cover crops, no-till, and split nitrogen application contracts—by 55%, 69%, and 52%— with enrollment restrictions, respectively. In addition, participation supply curves also demonstrate higher enrollment, though this is especially true for low compensation levels.