Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
8-1997
Document Type
Article
Citation
/. Sod and Water Cons. 52(4) 259-264
Abstract
This article employs survey data to test hypotheses about Corn Belt farmers’ intentions to apply conservation compliance plans. The data came from winter 1995 telephone interviews with a random sample of 839 farmers in that five-state region who had USDA-approved plans for their high4 erodible cropland For ethical and practical reasons noncompliance was measured indirectly-the respondents’ estimates of the percentage of their peers in the county who would “not apply their plans to any meaningful extent in 1995.” Regression analysis found that, as predicted by deterrence theory, farmers who believed in high probabilities of violations being detected or penalized were more likely to expect relatively low percentages of their peers out of compliance in the coming crop season. Other findings suggest that respondents were projecting their own farming situations onto their peers when making estimates of noncompliance. For example, relatively low estimates were more likely if the respondents had participated the previous year in either a federal commodity program or a federal crop insurance program. They tended to be lower also if the interviewees had either no till or contour farming practices in their plans.
Comments
Used by permission.