Farmer behavior toward herbicide‐free agriculture and conservation tillage

A-Tier
Journal: American Journal of Agricultural Economics
Year: 2026
Volume: 108
Issue: 1
Pages: 28-53

Authors (4)

Viviana Garcia (not in RePEc) Niklas Möhring (not in RePEc) Yanbing Wang (not in RePEc) Robert Finger (Eidgenössische Technische Hoch...)

Score contribution per author:

1.005 = (α=2.01 / 4 authors) × 2.0x A-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

Balancing conflicting policy goals is a key challenge in the transition to sustainable agricultural systems. An important example is herbicide use reduction potentially conflicting with conservation tillage—which often strongly relies on herbicide use. We investigate the joint uptake of two agri‐environmental schemes, conservation tillage and herbicide‐free agriculture systems. To this end, we use a combination of detailed survey data on farmer behavior, environmental and agronomic data, and census data on the complete population of all farmers from Switzerland. Findings based on a multinomial logit and fixed effects multinomial logit indicate that, conditional on observable factors, the systems are not complementary, but joint adoption occurs for 35% of farmers. Behavioral factors explain 26% of joint adoption behavior, emphasizing the role of risk taking, openness to innovation, and biodiversity valuations in farmers' decisions. Our analysis provides broader implications for assessing and navigating conflicting sustainability goals in agriculture globally.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:wly:ajagec:v:108:y:2026:i:1:p:28-53
Journal Field
Agricultural
Author Count
4
Added to Database
2026-01-25