What have we learned about who conserves soil?

WHAT kinds of farmers care the most about conserving soil? Which ones actually do the most about it? What farm characteristics are most conducive to conservation? How important are various information sources in shaping farmers' soil conservation attitudes and practices? These questions have interested conservationists and agricultural policymakers since the start of the soil conservation movement, and they have been the subject of a substantial body of research, primarily by agricultural economists and rural sociologists. Further efforts to answer these questions are fully justified on two counts: Soil loss has long been a major national environmental problem, but its resolution remains frustratingly beyond our grasp. The failure is not primarily technical. Available techniques continue to advance, but that does not mean that farmers necessarily use them. Farmers must want to use them, and their farms' circumstances must permit them to use them (7, 33). Concern is growing about agricultural resource and environmental problems related to, but broader than, traditional soil conservation issues. Examples include contamination of groundwater by pesticides and fertilizers, loss of wildlife habitat, and toxic …