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Renters, landlords, and farmland stewardship
Author(s) -
Deaton B. James,
Lawley Chad,
Nadella Karthik
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.29
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1574-0862
pISSN - 0169-5150
DOI - 10.1111/agec.12433
Subject(s) - landlord , renting , stewardship (theology) , agriculture , business , agricultural economics , agricultural land , land tenure , tillage , land management , natural resource economics , agroforestry , conservation agriculture , land use , economics , environmental stewardship , environmental resource management , geography , ecology , politics , archaeology , political science , law , biology
Are farmers better stewards of the land they own than the land they rent from others? We answer this question using a data set that identifies Ontario farmers’ conservation practices on their own land as well as the land they rent. Using a fixed‐effects regression approach, we find that the role of tenure varies for different types of conservation practices. Farmers were found to be just as likely to adopt a machinery‐related practice such as conservation tillage on their rented land as that land which they own. On the other hand, farmers were found to be less likely to adopt site‐specific conservation practices such as planting cover crops on rented land. However, this effect diminishes as the expected length of the rental relationship increases when the landlord has a farming background.