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RESEARCH – PHOSPHORUS – SOCIAL & ECONOMIC
EVALUATION
Research is being conducted at Land Grant Universities to understand the social and economic factors that help the public change their behavior or make a decision to support a practice that will minimize phosphorus contamination.
Collaborating researchers from University of Pennsylvania, University of Delaware, Cornell University, Penn State University, University of Maryland, and Virginia Tech conducted a survey to gain a better understanding of farm practices and producer concerns regarding P management on dairy farms. Findings helped to guide the development of education and extension materials to address common concerns.
Researchers at Colorado State University conducted surveys that indicated the producers are accepting many of the fertilizer best management practices (BMPs) that protect water quality
. However, there were considerable differences in adoption between practices, regions, and producer demographic groups. Practices that had an obvious economic benefit seem to be used more often than those where the return from increased managerial input is less obvious.
A survey was undertook at the University of Illinois to better understand why farmers did and did not participate in a subsidy program, and if any change in their use of fertilizer continued after the end of the program.
At Iowa State University, researchers are examining the degree to which the adoption of conservation practices can be fostered or impeded by the availability of information, technical assistance, and socio-economic factors, 
such as profitability, risk, and tenure system.
Research at the University of Florida is evaluating BMPs to reduce excessive irrigation and unmanaged fertilization to reduce nutrient leaching to groundwater and conducting self-auditing feed back loops to evaluate stakeholder opinion change.
At the University of Nebraska, researchers are developing a Pollution-Economic Decision Support Tool (PEDST) to enable farmers and community members to better understand pollution and economic effects of BMPs in their watershed.
Purdue University researchers are evaluating the effectiveness of a framework of social indicators for identifying the factors that promote and hinder adoption of agricultural BMPs and measuring the effectiveness of education and outreach programs designed specifically to address the social factors that hinder adoption of BMPs.
An integrated, interdisciplinary, multi-state project will apply environmental and behavioral research results to Extension efforts to reduce the application of excess nutrients by homeowners in targeted, urbanizing neighborhoods throughout New England with the ultimate goal of protecting surface and ground water quality.
