Dutch farmers' views on public and private incentives for soil health improvements

Summary

Attention to soil health has increased in recent years. Healthier soils can result from extensifying farming practices which increase soil organic matter, and research shows that farmers often need to be financially incentivied to implement such practices. Financial incentives can be provided through agri-environmental contracts between farmers and public entities, through payments from food value chain actors for more sustainable production, or more recently, also through payments from carbon credit markets. This article aims to provide insights into how farmers perceive various financial incentives, including public payments, payments along the food value chain, and payments through carbon credit markets, as well as non-financial incentives (e.g., improved training opportunities). The ar