Examining the Impacts of Conservation Agriculture on Farm Workforce Well-Being

Commodities

• Animal Products: dairy

Practices

• Animal Production: manure management
• Education and Training: decision support system
• Farm Business Management: labor/employment
• Soil Management: soil quality/health
• Sustainable Communities: quality of life

Project focus: Conservation Agriculture (CA) practices can significantly benefit dairy farms through their positive contributions to environmental stewardship, animal welfare, and farm viability. For many years, staff of the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay ('the Alliance') have listened attentively to farmers' stories about changes on their farms after CA projects were completed. Farmers often notice positive impacts, for example that their herd health has improved, that they can spend more time with family, or that they see more interest from their children in learning to farm. Moreover, farmers and farmworkers using CA practices enjoy decreased exposure to chemicals, greater work satisfaction, and knowledge gain about sustainable agricultural practices.

However, the impacts of CA on farmer and farmworker safety and well-being are mixed. Farmers have also shared with the Alliance that some practices generate new and unforeseen labor requirements and stressors, including more time performing new tasks, more detailed record-keeping, and operational changes that necessitate financial assistance to succeed. Farmers and farmworkers implementing these practices may endure tiredness, greater heat exposure, new workplace safety hazards, and feelings of uncertainty over whether their extra efforts are valued at work. Farmers must therefore weigh a complicated set of pros and cons when considering adopting CA.

While there are existing farmer decision-making support tools related to the effects of adopting CA for the farm business and for animals, there are currently no decision tools related to people-centered decisions. A standardized, research-informed framework that farmers can use to help identify possible outcomes of CA adoption for health, workload, and work satisfaction is needed.

Solution and approach: As an integrated team of researchers and practitioners, we will develop a Conservation Agriculture Workforce Well-Being Assessment Tool. We will develop our tool through case study research on six dairy farms along a spectrum of implementation of CA practices. Our workforce well-being approach includes three complementary dimensions: (1) occupational safety and health risks; (2) working schedules; and (3) work satisfaction. To ensure broad usefulness of our Assessment Tool across the dairy workforce, we will conduct our research with a range of participants including farm owners, family-based workers, and hired employees (seasonal and year-round). Our Assessment Tool will be made available for use by CA practitioners by the end of the project. After the project and Tool development is complete, the Alliance will be able to use the tool while completing CA projects with its large network of farms to assess and thus tailor its programming to meet workforce well-being needs - the social pillar of agricultural sustainability. We will also carry out an educational program centered on farmer-to-farmer learning sessions in which experiences of CA are shared among farmer peers.

1. Conservation Agriculture has mixed impacts on the safety and health, working schedules, and work satisfaction of dairy farmers and workers. A standardized approach to weighing the pros and cons of CA is needed. Through qualitative interviews and a systematic analysis of existing indicator-based approaches, we will develop a Conservation Agriculture Workforce Well-Being Assessment Tool to support farmer decision-making for CA adoption.
2. We will serve Amish and non-Amish small and medium-sized dairy farms in Central and Southern PA. The project will be conducted with thirty members of the dairy workforce across six farms.
3. Northeast dairy farmers will benefit from the creation of a tool that CA practitioners and farmer-serving organizations can use to indicate the likely impacts of CA adoption from a workforce and social well-being standpoint. Farmers will benefit from farmer-to-farmer learning on the impacts of CA adoption and the dissemination of project outputs which support greater attention to the social dimension of conservation agriculture.