Abstract:
Agricultural conservation programs often focus on farm operators when promoting conservation practices. However, much of U.S. farmland is owned by landowners not directly involved in farm operations, i.e., non-operating landowners (NOLs). The Nature Conservancy’s ReThink Soil Health program undertook a large-scale field trial in Illinois, Iowa, and Indiana to assess opportunities for conservation programs designed for NOLs. I will describe findings under the three aims of this project: 1) qualitative interviews and analysis of farmland owners’ and operators’ expressed challenges to implementing conservation on rented land; 2) a messaging experiment to test the effects of different message frames to recruit NOLs into the program (n=41,511); and 3) a randomized controlled trial of NOLs (n=2,225) to assess the relative effects of three interventions on cover crop adoption: information on conservation, adapted lease language, and cash payments.
