Land tenure and agricultural management: Soil conservation on rented and owned fields in southwest British Columbia

摘要

According to literature, insecure land tenure biases against soil conservation on farmland. However, there is little evidence to test whether farmers need to own their land to conserve it, or if long-term leases are adequate. One way to infer whether or not different land tenure arrangements promote long-term management is through analyzing the types of crops planted on fields with different land tenure arrangements. Perennials, forage legumes, grasslands, and grain are all important parts of sustainable crop rotation in southwest British Columbia but provide little cash return in the year they are planted. Annual crops provide a high cash return but create soil conservation problems if they are planted too often. A comparison of fields with different land tenures showed that farmers who own their land plant more perennials, grain, and forage legumes than farmers who rent fields. Few differences were observed on fields with different lease lengths. This study leads to three overall conclusions. First, although results confirm the literature, and insecure land tenure is a real obstacle to long-term soil conservation, it is not possible to assume that long-term leases will substitute for land ownership. Second, it is possible to use relatively easy-to-gather data on crop history to assess the impact of tenure on farming. Third, intervening variables, in this case a program that pays farmers to plant grasslands, over-rides the effect of insecure land tenure and creates incentives for owner-operators and tenant farmers alike to use crop management that protects soil fertility in the long term.