Socio-Economics

A key piece of Living Lab – Nova Scotia is assessing the barriers experienced by farmers in adopting BMPs on their farm. For example, cover cropping has been around for decades, but there are still many farms that aren’t implementing this practice. We need to understand why, so we can work to overcome those barriers and increase adoption.  

There are many reasons a farmer would choose not to adopt a practice. A survey ran by NSFA in the proposal stage of the living lab project found the barriers varied by BMP.  For example, the barrier farmers listed most for cover cropping was cost but lack of knowledge was also listed as a barrier by 20% of respondents. For reducing tillage, the need for new equipment was the main barrier. When asked about installing riparian areas the lack of government incentives was the top deterrent.  

Our research team at Acadia University is further assessing the barriers to adoption through workshops with our participating producers. These workshops followed the decision-making tree a producer would go through to choose to adopt a BMP and was designed to discover the barriers to BMP adoption. These workshops, along with a scan of current literature should give us a better understanding of what prevents farmers from adopting these BMPs. This can lead to better policies, funding programs, and better communication to increase these practices.  

Since cost is one of the main factors listed as to why a practice is not adopted, we will also be determining how much each BMP will cost, but will also compare that to the benefits that could be gained, such as through decreased fertilizer needs.