Conservation decisions of agricultural producers in eastern North Carolina.

摘要

The purpose of this research has been to assess the role of economic incentives in producers' decisions to adopt naturally-vegetated field borders in eastern North Carolina. This work has identified barriers to producer adoption of field borders on farms, quantified the opportunity costs of field borders in two distinct agronomic regions, determined hunter willingness-to-pay for wild quail hunting opportunities, and conducted a qualitative evaluation of the necessity and sufficiency of these findings as economic incentives to motivate producer adoption of field borders on their farms. Major barriers to producer adoption included uncertainty regarding field border generation of environmental benefits, the opportunity costs in foregone crop production and the impact of field border vegetation on adjacent crop yields. The opportunity costs of field borders in foregone corn and soybeans were lowest on corn field edges in Wilson County, in the upper coastal plain, especially those next to wooded areas where corn production was often unprofitable. Hunters' willingness-to-pay for wild quail hunting opportunities were sufficient to make field borders economically viable on some profitably farmed areas as well. Qualitative evaluation of these findings as economic incentives for producer adoption of field borders found the adoption decision process of producers to be more complex in the upper than in the lower coastal plain. Increased competition for farmland and recreational hunting opportunities in upper coastal plain communities accounted for these differences.