Houser, M., R. Irvine, and S. Marquart-Pyatt. 2025. How row-crop farmers adapted nitrogen management in response to market volatility: Evidence from interviews in the United States Midwest. Society & Natural Resources doi: 10.1080/08941920.2025.2494016

The loss of agricultural nitrogen (N) fertilizer is a key contributor to water quality degradation and climate change across the globe and in the United States (US). Taxing N to increase prices and reduce total use toward environmental improvements is a commonly proposed policy, but research into the relationship between N use and N prices remains inconclusive. Using interviews with 18 row-crop farmers across Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois in the US Midwest, we explore how farmers were changing or planning to change their N management strategy in response N price spikes during the 2021–2020 growing season. We find that farmers responded in divergent ways, using an adaptive “management systems” approach of bundling together several different practices to achieve a particular outcome. Our results suggest that future research may benefit from considering farmers’ management responses to economic or policy shifts through multifaceted, management systems approach that captures behavioral nuances.

DOI: 10.1080/08941920.2025.2494016

Associated Treatment Areas:

• Human Surveys

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