The social, economic and institutional factors affecting adoption of soil conservation practices: the Asian experience

The purpose of this paper is to discuss social, economic and institutional factors affecting adoption and continued use of soil conservation practices at the farm level in Asia. Macrosocial factors discussed are population pressure on land resources, poverty, land tenure and national development policies. Microsocial factors selected for examination are awareness of conservation practices, access to information systems, profitability of soil conservation practices, and value orientations of land operators. It is concluded that programs designed to facilitate adoption of soil conservation practices at the farm level in Asia must address macrosocial factors as well as microsocial factors or they will probably not be successful. Specific recommendations for the development of intervention strategies are presented.