Barriers to Adoption of Prairie Strips: Farmer Perspectives

Commodities

Practices

Title: Barriers to Adoption of Prairie Strips: Farmer Perspectives

Agriculture is a primary land use in the Midwest, United States and Michigan benefits from a diverse fruit and crop industry. To maintain productivity, Michigan farmers employ agricultural management practices, including synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, and tillage for weed and pest management. However, intensive agriculture has led to a decline in wildlife habitat and biological diversity. One potential solution is the establishment of prairie strips, or perennial prairie plantings within row-crop agriculture that enhance ecosystem services such as soil health, pest predation, and pollination. Prairie strips uniquely benefit both the farming community and agricultural systems by reducing the need for intensive agricultural practices, while providing necessary habitat for ecosystem health and resiliency.

However, adoption among farmers in Michigan remains low. Here, I propose a community engaged research project to address the question: What are the opportunities and barriers to adoption of prairie strips in Michigan? I will collaborate with Conservation Districts and the Michigan Farm Bureau in several Michigan counties to host interviews and focus groups. By partnering with local organizations for this community engaged project, we can target conservation-oriented farmers and utilize a “place-based” approach for discussion and data collection. Interviews and focus groups will take place late fall to winter 2024-25 depending on farmer availability. The development, implementation, and evaluation of the interviews and focus groups will include input from partnering Conservation Districts and the Michigan Farm Bureau to better reflect the priorities within their districts. I further propose to work with MSU-Extension MiSTRIPS and other MSU students and faculty to carry out demonstrations, presentations, and group facilitation. Summary and analysis of these discussions will be published and presented to Conservation Districts, Michigan Farm Bureau, MSU Extension, and participating farmers.

This community-engaged research project will benefit both the farming community and the academic community. We hope to better understand what continues to encourage or prevent farmers from adoption of conservation practices such as prairie plantings or strips. While the qualitative analysis of this project will inform the academic community on next steps, the results will also be shared with local farming communities to support the Conservation District's efforts to increase sustainable agricultural practices within their districts. 

By engaging directly with farmers, this project will improve a) the understanding of the opportunities and barriers to adoption of prairie strips in Michigan on the part of MSU researchers and extension; and b) improve the access to knowledge and resources on prairie strips as a conservation practice on Michigan farms on the part of participating farmers. Through a series of interviews and focus groups, farmers will discuss prairie strips and gain access to a community of conservation-oriented farmers and programs with similar goals. By collaborating with MiSTRIPS, farmer participants gain access to a larger conservation network. 

The long term, sustainable outcomes of this project will include the change in Michigan’s agricultural landscape to include both more conservation-oriented farmers and diversity in farming practices. By engaging with farmers directly to identify opportunities and addressing place-based barriers to adoption of prairie strips, this project will lead to an increase in the number of Michigan farms and acreage enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) of the US Farm Bill, in particular CRP-43 which provides monetary incentives for farmers converting previously arable land to prairie strips. Presenting my research at Conservation District and Farm Bureau meetings, as well as farmer education days held by partnering organizations will facilitate trust and partnerships between MSU researchers, MSU-extension, Conservation Districts, and participating farmers. Lastly, to adapt for an inconsistent climatic and economic future, this project will facilitate the adoption of a “resilient mindset” through place-based, regenerative agricultural management on Michigan farms.