Cover crops use in Midwestern US agriculture: perceived benefits and net returns
Cover crops use in Midwestern US agriculture: perceived benefits and net returns
复制标题
美国中西部农业中覆盖作物的使用：感知效益和净回报
DOI：
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发表时间：
2018
影响因子：
2.7
通讯作者：
S. Carlson
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Alejandro S. Plastina;Fangge Liu;F. Miguez;S. Carlson
摘要尽管被普遍认为是减少硝酸盐污染和促进土壤可持续发展的一种有前途的保护措施，但覆盖作物在美国中西部农业中的采用率很低。基于焦点小组、调查和部分预算，我们计算了伊利诺伊州、爱荷华州和明尼苏达州农民使用作物的年度净收益；并得出了农民对将覆盖作物纳入他们的行种植制度的利弊的看法。我们方法的新奇之处在于，将每个农民在有覆盖作物(通常是小型作物)的耕作制度部分的做法与他们在没有覆盖作物的种植制度的另一部分的做法进行比较。考虑到农民的异质性，由此产生的比较比通过比较覆盖作物使用者和不相关的非采用者的指标计算出的典型影响更可靠。我们的结果突出了将覆盖作物整合到作物生产系统中的复杂性，并表明覆盖作物除了建立和终止成本外，还通过几个渠道影响整个农场的盈利能力。尽管农民对覆盖作物和成本分担计划的可用性有积极的看法，但计算出的覆盖作物使用的年度净收益对大多数参与者来说是负的。
Abstract Despite being generally accepted as a promising conservation practice to reduce nitrate pollution and promote soil sustainability, cover crop adoption in Midwestern US agriculture is low. Based on focus groups, surveys and partial budgets, we calculated the annual net returns to cover crop use for farmers in Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota; and elicited farmers’ perceptions about the pros and cons of incorporating cover crops to their row cropping systems. The novelty of our methodology resides in comparing each farmer's practices in the portion of their cropping system with cover crops (typically small), against their practices in the other portion of their cropping system without cover crops. The resulting comparisons, accounting for farmer heterogeneity, are more robust than the typical effects calculated by comparing indicators across cover crop users and unrelated non-adopters. Our results highlight the complicated nature of integrating cover crops into the crop production system and show that cover crops affect whole farm profitability through several channels besides establishment and termination costs. Despite farmers’ positive perceptions about cover crops and the availability of cost-share programs, calculated annual net returns to cover crops use were negative for most participants.