Abstract
The criticalness of soil health to agricultural production and conservation has been well documented in certain areas of the US and among certain farmers. Yet, other agricultural lands and producers in the US remain largely understudied in regards to soil health, particularly agricultural production systems in the Intermountain West. Using results of in-depth interviews with farmers and ranchers in Utah participating in the Utah Soil Health Network On-Farm Soil Health Demonstration Project on their agricultural lands, we begin to fill these gaps in the social science research by focusing on the motivations of these farmers and ranchers for participating in the soil health trial and the challenges they face to implementing soil health conservation practices on their land. The findings show these farmers and ranchers understand the importance of soil health and are wanting knowledge of soil health practices. They see the gap in research on soil health in their geographical region—and they feel the gap. They are well aware of the uniqueness of their land, and that soil health practices used in other parts of the country do not always work nor are necessarily a good idea in their geographical landscape. Yet, they are motivated to attempt soil health practices for their own benefit and so that others can learn from them. Understanding these motivations and challenges are important if measures toward improving soil health are to continue and move beyond limited areas of the US and extend to all forms of agricultural producers.
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Funding
There are no financial or non-financial interests directly or indirectly related to this work. This research is funded by a USDA NRCS five-year Conservation Innovation Grant awarded to the Utah Soil Health Partnership to support the Utah Soil Health Network. The overarching goal is to increase the adoption of soil health practices in Utah with this on-farm trial focused on diverse farming systems.
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Petrzelka, P., Ulrich-Schad, J. & Yost, M. “We’re very late to the party”: motivations and challenges with improving soil health in Utah. Agric Hum Values 41, 381–386 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-023-10467-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-023-10467-x