ABSTRACT
Research was initiated within the Darby Creek watershed in central Ohio to assess the effectiveness of voluntary soil and water conservation programmes implemented using information, education, technical assistance and partial economic subsidies to motivate land owner-operators to adopt and to use conservation production systems. Studies using cross-sectional research design, time series methodology, and multiple group comparisons were implemented in 1991, 1994 and 1999. Study findings revealed that participation in conservation programmes implemented within the Darby Creek watershed was not significantly related to adoption of soil and water conservation production systems at the farm level. Factors commonly argued to be significantly related to adoption of soil and water conservation practices were shown not to be predictive of adoption behaviours at the farm level in any of the watersheds examined. Findings produced from each of the assessment studies consistently demonstrated the failure of the voluntary approach to encourage adoption of conservation production practices within the Darby Creek watershed and the other watersheds examined. Alternative public policy approaches are discussed.
