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Conference Agenda

Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).

Please note that all times are shown in the time zone of the conference. The current conference time is: 10th Sept 2026, 06:51:01pm CEST (Norway)

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Daily Overview

Session

Climate anomalies, policy responses, and global environmental insights
Location: Auditorium O: Terje Hansen
Session Chair: Luca Panzone, luca.panzone@newcastle.ac.uk

Presentation 4

Are Farmers Better Messengers than Extension Professionals for Conservation Practice Adoption?

Xiaolan Wan², Jackie Comito², Wendong Zhang¹

1: Cornell University, USA; 2: Iowa State University, USA

Discussant: Francesco Jacopo Pintus (University of Padova)

This study explores the influence of messengers on farmers’ decisions to adopt an edge-of-field (EOF) practice. We conducted an information treatment experiment across two information sources: an Extension professional and a farmer early adopter, versus a control group. Using an online survey of 373 Iowa farmer respondents in 2022, we build an empirical model to detect the treatment effect on the adoption of EOF practices. Our regression results reveal that farmers with less experience in conservation practices responded more positively to the treatments. Notably, farmer messengers proved to be more effective than Extension professionals in encouraging the adoption. For the respondents who are not currently enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), the farmer messenger can increase their adoption by 20.4 percentage points, while the professional messenger can achieve a 7.7-percentage-point increase in adoption. These findings highlight the value of leveraging peer experiences and narratives in conservation outreach. Farmer-to-farmer communication appears to resonate more effectively in these communities.