Land Tenure, Farmer’s Perception and Adoption of Weed Resistance Management Practices

Abstract

It has frequently been argued that farm operators have less incentive to delay herbicide resistance on leased land than on land they own. This is because resistance management entails short-run costs, while benefits accruing in the future might not be captured if leases are not renewed. Primary data from a survey of 679 U.S. cotton, corn, and soybean producers were analyzed to assess the influence of land tenure on the adoption of 16 weed resistance management practices, controlling for geography, farmer demographic characteristics, and perceptions about weed management. Farmer respondents were divided into three tenure groups: full owners, partial owners, and full tenants to match categories used in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Census of Agriculture. Results from multivariate, ordered probit models run counter to conventional wisdom: full owners are frequently found to have lower adoption rates of adoption of resistance management practices, compared with full tenants and partial owners. After controlling for geography, demographics, and perception variables, land tenure variables show weak or no statistically significant association with adoption. Younger farmers exhibited higher adoption rates, while farmers exhibiting “techno-optimism” (the belief that new herbicides would soon be developed to replace ones facing weed resistance) had lower adoption rates for several practices. Multinomial logit regression to predict tenure status suggest that full owners are, on average, older and more likely to display techno-optimism. Results suggest that age and techno-optimism are greater barriers to resistance management than tenure status.