Agents for diffusion of agricultural innovations for environmental outcomes. (September 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Brown, Philip; Hart, Georgina; Small, Bruce; de Oca Munguia, Oscar Montes
• Is Part Of: Land use policy. Volume 55(2016:Sept.)
• Page Start: 318
• Page End: 326
• Publication Date: 2016-09
• Subjects: Early adopters -- Innovation -- Networks -- Trust -- Demonstration -- Best practices; Land use -- Periodicals; Land use -- Government policy -- Periodicals; Sol, Utilisation du -- Périodiques; Sol, Utilisation du -- Politique gouvernementale -- Périodiques; Electronic journals; 333.7305
• DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2016.04.017
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0264-8377

Abstract

Highlights: Local government seeks both environmental protection and higher agricultural output. Farmers in New Zealand mistrust local government but trust other farmers. "Innovative" farmers develop new practices and "connectors" spread the word. These farmers are young, male, well educated, large, and financially robust. These traits do not predict trust in government, making allies hard to identify. Abstract: In New Zealand, local governments are tasked with both sustainably managing natural resources and supporting adoption of practices and technologies for environmental outcomes. Unfortunately, farmers in New Zealand lack trust in advice on environmental performance provided by local governments. Hence, local governments may seek to partner with others to disseminate information about environmentally friendly practices and technologies to farmers. Empirical evidence indicates that New Zealand farmers are more likely to adopt new practices after seeing them successfully demonstrated; therefore, local government would do well to partner with those who have tried the practices themselves and those with large farmer networks. In this paper, we use unique survey data to identify the characteristics of such "innovators" and "connectors". We also identify the characteristics of individuals who trust environmental information provided by local governments. We find that sex, age, education level, financial robustness, farm size, and the number of distinct land uses are correlated with both innovativeness and connectedness. However, among these characteristics, only education and financial robustness predict trust in environmental information provided by local governments.