ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Social Movements, Institutions and Governance
Volume 9 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1639337
Cash Crops or Cover Crops? The Reasons and Barriers for Adopting Cover Crops in the Southern Great Plains of Texas and Oklahoma
Provisionally accepted
Patrick Jamar1
Emily R Fuller2
Holli R Leggette1*
Peng Lu3
Dara M Wald2
Troy Allen Berthold4Stephanie deVilleneuve5,6- 1Texas A&M University, College Station, United States
- 2Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, United States
- 3University of Georgia, Athens, United States
- 4Texas A&M University Texas Water Resources Institute, College Station, United States
- 5Texas A&M University Office of the Chancellor and Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, College Station, United States
- 6Texas A&M AgriLife Research, College Station, United States
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Water conservation practices such as cover crop adoption have been promoted as effective strategies to improve water quality and soil health. However, cover crop adoption rates have remained low in Texas. A better understanding of the barriers to farmer cover crop adoption can highlight new pathways, encouraging conservation practice adoption across regions of the U.S. This study examined reasons and barriers to cover crop adoption, including farmers' demographics and farm characteristics. Using guidance from social cognitive theory and the theory of social normative behavior, we also examined how personal, cognitive, and environmental factors shaped farmers' behaviors. The data collection process took place starting May 5th, 2022, and ending December 30th, 2022. A random sample of 3,000 participants was selected from the 88 counties in the Southern Great Plains of Texas and Oklahoma, from the 2021 USDA farm payment payees' online files. Data were collected using a cross-sectional survey to describe characteristics of farmer populations (e.g., farmers, ranchers, land managers). Findings indicated that adaptors were largely 51 to 70 years old (58.3%), female (55.6%), and white (94.4%), with a majority being highly educated (i.e., having a graduate (22.2%) or bachelor's (36.1%) degree). Moreover, adoption reasons increased as farmers attained smaller income amounts from agricultural products. Of farmers who adopted cover crops, 38.9% did not use irrigation, while 22.2% irrigated between 81% to 100% of their farmed land. Most adopters (61.8%) farmed annual crops. Adopters and non-adopters were significantly different in their environmental and economic barrier perceptions for cover crop adoption. We conclude by discussing situational and economic factors that may drive these findings and opportunities for future research.
Keywords: water conservation practices1, Regenerative Agriculture2, soil health3, sustainability4, drought5
Received: 03 Jun 2025; Accepted: 24 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jamar, Fuller, Leggette, Lu, Wald, Berthold and deVilleneuve. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Holli R Leggette, hollileggette@tamu.edu
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.