Evaluating Stakeholder Perceptions on Palmer Amaranth Management in Georgia

View the project final report

Commodities

Practices

• Pest Management: integrated pest management

1) Research Problem:

Over the last 20 years the adoption of herbicide tolerant (HT) crops in the Southeast, primarily cotton, has increased the adoption of conservation tillage systems, which has been shown to increase the environmental sustainability of row crop production. Consequently, a high reliance on glyphosate within these cropping systems has strongly selected for herbicide resistance in Palmer amaranth, a pernicious annual weed. In response, farmers have re-incorporated deep tillage and spend large amounts of money on hand weeding, both of which decrease environmental and economic sustainability. Misuse of herbicides has also presented environmental, social and economic challenges, with numerous reports of damage to non-HT crops, including high-value specialty crops, leading to economic, legal and interpersonal tensions within rural communities. Integrated weed management (IWM) has been proposed as a solution to some of these issues and includes the use of herbicide and mechanical-physical practices such as cultivation and hand-weeding, but also cultural practices such as crop rotation and the use of cover crops, which may decrease herbicide use overall. In the wake of challenges with herbicide resistant weeds, integrated weed management (IWM) research has been steadily increasing and results have shown IWM systems to be highly effective in managing herbicide resistant weeds. Practices such as cover cropping have been suggested to balance weed suppression and soil conservation; however, cover crops add to management complexity and the adoption of IWM remains low. 

Understanding how and why IWM practices are or are not adopted requires research that identifies and describes distinct perspectives that exist within these social ecosystems. Adoption research often focuses on the end-users, farmers, but Extension agents, industry representatives and salespeople are also part of the “social ecosystem” of weed management. The interactions among these groups determine how weed management is practiced, so the goal of this study was to characterize viewpoints from these different stakeholder groups around how to best manage Palmer amaranth, identify points of divergence and convergence among perspectives, and determine if/why stakeholders view ecological practices as viable management strategies. We hope understanding this social context will aid in the design of future educational and incentive programs to promote the adoption of more sustainable practices.

2) Research Approach:

To investigate this issue, we used an approach called Q-Methodology (QM) to identify and describe shared perceptions of agricultural systems, farmer livelihoods, and sustainability among row-crop stakeholders in the state of Georgia. These perceptions emerged through a facilitated dialogue in which participants shared their thoughts on the relative merits of practices to manage the problematic weed, Palmer amaranth. Given the inherent parameters imposed by our statement-cards, as well as the game-like nature of the card sort, we believe that QM was a highly effective tool in encouraging a safe space for researcher-participant interaction, which lead to a productive and enjoyable research process for agricultural stakeholders. QM has considerable utility for work on human dimensions research in agriculture, particularly where interactions among varied stakeholder motivations and worldviews shape both farming practices and the landscape itself. In our case specifically, QM allowed us to identify and holistically describe perspectives that contribute to a greater understanding of the factors that influence stakeholder decision-making and how they envision the ongoing challenge of farming and managing weeds.

3) Research Conclusions:

Results from our analyses of management preferences for Palmer amaranth uncovered two distinct perspectives that reflect not just these preferences, but generalized worldviews on agriculture. The two perspectives diverged substantially in their attitudes toward the three knowledge categories of weed management (biological-cultural, chemical-technological, and mechanical-physical), but widely agreed on many best management practicies for herbicide stewardship and the need to understand basic biological characteristics of Palmer amaranth. Building on this, while differences were evident between perspectives around views of technology and system management, similarities were identified around attitudes toward regulation and path dependence.

4) Farmer Adoption Actions: n/a

This study serves as a formative assessment to evaluate perceptions and attitudes around IWM which may help the design of more effective education and outreach strategies to enhance the adoption of IWM practices.

1. Identify viewpoints from different stakeholder groups around how to best manage Palmer amaranth;

2. Characterize how viewpoints are convergent or divergent among different stakeholder groups;

3. Determine if stakeholders view an IWM approach, especially ecological practices, as viable management strategies.