Author : Garcia, Yolanda T.

Summary : This study aimed to resolve the controversy on the relative importance of economic vs. non-economic factors as determinants of farmers' decision to adopt soil conservation technologies in the upland at each stage of the decision-making process. Three models, with perception (perception of soil erosion problem), adoption (adoption of soil conservation technologies), and conservation (investment in soil conservation structure) as dependent variables, were specified to capture the three stages of farmers' decision-making process, respectively. Four factors (social, institutional, physical, and economic) factors were used as explanatory variables in the three models. Econometric models using ordinary least squares regression, binomial logit, and two-limit tobit were employed to generate the parameters of the three models, respectively. Tests of mean differences were done for all the social, institutional, physical, and economic variables that were used in the study to characterize the adopter and non-adopter farmers. Results revealed that adopter farmers were generally male, younger, more educated, better informed of soil erosion problems, and more optimistic about the yield benefits of soil conservation technologies. Cost and return analysis of their farm enterprises showed that adopter farmers, especially the early adopters, gained higher net return due to higher crop yield and lower use of fertilizer. Net return gap between farmer groups further showed that non-adopters incurred significant amount of opportunity cost in terms of foregone net return from corn production due to non-adoption. Analysis of the three decision models showed that institutional and physical factors (i.e., training on soil and water conservation technologies, radio listening to agricultural programs, and farm size) were the most important variables in explaining differences in farmers' perception of soil erosion problem and the decision to adopt soil conserving technologies.