Drivers and determinants of natural resource management adoption at the farm scale

Abstract

The environmental degradation caused by agricultural practices in the Australian grains industry has caused a change in the way we think about the industry and its effect on the environment. Emphasis is now placed on achieving economic social and environmental outcomes, the triple bottom line. Government, regional and industry organisations are using various instruments of influence to exert pressure on grain growers to implement better on-farm natural resource management (NRM) practices. Past strategies aimed at influencing the grower by appealing to their land stewardship and altruisms have proved worthwhile, as evidenced by increasing grower understanding of NRM problems. However, there has been a failure to deliver significant on-ground changes. Research into the adoption of NRM has suggested that the major factors that influence uptake are farm income, education and future farm planning. Other factors, such as individual farmer and social characteristics, have been identified as less important. A study by Gallopín (2002, pp. 361-392 in: Gunderson, L.H. and Holling, C.S. (eds), Panarchy: Understanding Transformations in Human and Natural Systems, Island Press, Washington) suggests that decision making processes for sustainable development are hampered by a (1) lack of political willingness, (2) a deficiency in understanding of environmental problems and their consequences and (3) the insufficient adaptive capacity (both financial and social) to act on the changes needed in the realm of physical possibility. This characterisation of the decision domain provides a useful model of the NRM adoption situation in Australia. The authors suggest that the pressure groups identified above will drive the willingness and understanding of future growers perceptions; whereas capacity is solely left to the individual grower. Here any decision to undertake NRM is based on uncertainty of the consequences of this adoption. There is much scope for research into the physical capacity of the farm to undertake NRM i.e. what are the benefits and costs of adopting NRM strategies. The application of precision agriculture technology into this area can reduce the uncertainty in the decision making process by being able to quantify both the short-term effect on grower’s income and long-term effect on environmental degradation. The aim of this paper is to highlight the drivers and determinants of NRM adoption at the farm scale. This paper also identifies additional information that will be needed if any real on-ground changes are to occur on ground. The “farms capacity to change” should be examined ahead of the grower’s capacity to adopt if the grower’s uncertainties about NRM practices are to be diminished. This paper identifies precision agriculture as a technology for reducing the uncertainty in the decision making process because data is collected at a scale in which these NRM decisions are made. Precision agriculture can estimate the opportunity costs associated with NRM adoption and further help in the understanding of the degree to which a farm can adopt NRM practices. Growers cannot be green if they are in the red.