2026-07-16 ジョージア大学（UGA）
＜関連情報＞
- https://fieldreport.caes.uga.edu/news/why-dont-more-farmers-use-cover-crops/
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00224561.2026.2656578
- https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10460-026-10885-7
被覆作物の栽培に万能な方法はない：普及活動に役立てるため、被覆作物に関する農家の考え方を探る There’s not one-size-fits-all for cover cropping: Exploring farmers’ mindsets on cover crops to inform outreach
Maria Teresa Tancredi,Robert L. Myers,Nicholas Tuschak Basinger &Jennifer Jo Thompson
Journal of Soil and Water Conservation Published:11 Jun 2026
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1080/00224561.2026.2656578
Abstract
Faced with climate change, dwindling resources, and the world’s growing population, agriculture must become more sustainable, efficient, and resilient. Research shows that practices like cover crops can help meet these needs, but their use in the United States remains limited, with only 4.7% of farmed acres utilizing cover crops. Against this backdrop, we used semistructured interviews and Q methodology to explore row crop commodity farmers’ perspectives on cover crops in the US Northeast, Southeast, and Midwest regions. While past research has attempted to identify and isolate factors influencing adoption (i.e., perceived benefits, barriers, and motivations), this project investigates farmers’ holistic perspectives on cover crops by grounding their decision to adopt (or not) in their overall view of commodity agriculture. Our analysis reveals 14 distinct mindsets across the three US regions, with points of convergence suggesting that some viewpoints extend beyond regional boundaries. Importantly, this work finds that different perspectives on cover crops span both adopters and nonadopters in the same regions, demonstrating that adoption is not itself a mindset and highlighting why “one-size-fits-all” outreach efforts have failed to generate higher implementation rates. By investigating farmers’ mindsets on cover crops, this research provides much-needed information for outreach targeted to farmers’ needs, beliefs, and priorities, thus supporting increased and successful cover crop adoption across the country.
導入の多様性を探る：米国農家は被覆作物の長期性、完全性、多様性、そして相互補完性をどのように管理しているか Navigating the adoption spectrum: how U.S. farmers manage longevity, entirety, variability
Lauren Hunt,Maria Teresa Tancredi,Meredith T. Niles & Jennifer Jo Thompson
Agriculture and Human Values Published:28 April 2026
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-026-10885-7
Abstract
Understanding how farmers adopt conservation farming practices is critical for advancing agricultural sustainability, yet adoption is often treated as a binary outcome. This binary view risks underestimating commitment by mislabeling adaptive management as disadoption, while overestimating environmental benefits by equating small trials with whole-farm adoption. To expand our understanding of adoption, we apply a multidimensional framework – capturing longevity, entirety, variability, and complementarity – to examine how farmers make decisions about cover crops as a focal conservation practice. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 86 farmers across nine U.S. states, we show that adoption is not a linear or uniform process, but a dynamic navigation of trade-offs. Farmers frequently described trialing and partial implementation as strategic resilience mechanisms, discontinuity as a response to shifting constraints rather than failure, and simplification or selective integration of practices as pathways to long-term viability. Complementary practices were often adopted to enhance ecological and economic synergies, reflecting systems-oriented decision-making rather than isolated practice uptake. Our findings advance understanding of adoption by demonstrating that binary adoption metrics fail to capture the lived reality of management. These insights have direct implications for refining cost-share program efficacy, interpreting ecological outcomes, and designing policies that support durable, whole-farm conservation strategies.
