LU-CAEHS Research Seminar
"Understanding the Adoption of Complex Soil Health Management Systems: A Behavioral Spillover and Climate Risk Approach"
Despite growing emphasis on soil health in climate adaptation policy, the behavioral drivers behind complex practice adoption remain poorly understood. This study examines how farmers’ green identity and personal climate hazard experience predict the breadth and intensity of complex soil health practices – including notill farming, cover cropping, and nutrient management. Using data from 289 U.S. farm households surveyed in early 2025, we analyze a Weighted Soil Health Index that captures the range and complexity of practices adopted. Results show that farmers who engage in routine environmental behaviors at home also tend to adopt more intensively on the farm, confirming a positive behavioral spillover. Those who experienced severe weather events adopt at rates 68% higher than their peers. While behavioral and experiential factors drive adoption, financial constraints remain a significant barrier among lower-income households, suggesting that identity-based outreach alone is insufficient without complementary economic support. These findings point to identity-based and climate-targeted outreach as powerful complements to traditional economic incentives in agricultural extension programming.
Presented by Dr. Lan Tran, Postdoctoral Researcher of Agribusiness – LUCR
Dr. Tran holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics (Natural Resources and Environmental Economics emphasis) and an M.A. in Applied Statistics from the University of Missouri-Columbia. His work focuses on developing decision-support tools and predictive policy models that help agribusiness stakeholders build climate resilience and improve input efficiency under shifting resource and market conditions. Methodologically, he brings expertise in econometric and optimization modeling, frontier analysis, discrete choice and field experiments, and latent variable models. Complementing this production and policy focus, he examines consumer preferences for local food, sustainable attributes, and novel bio-based products, providing demandside insights that inform both market strategy and policy design. His current research draws on a national U.S. climate impact survey to investigate household climate vulnerability and farm-level soil health practice adoption, exploring how green identity, climate hazard experience, and behavioral spillover shape farmers’ engagement with complex soil health management systems.
