Survey of farmers on their perception of soil compaction and application of soil conservation measures

While the scientific aspects of soil compaction are studied since decades, there is hardly insight on knowledge and perception of this topic among farmers. Furthermore, there is hardly information on the dissemination of soil conservation measures to avoid soil compaction. For this reason, we conducted a German-wide online survey among farmers on this topic in autumn/winter 2017/2018. A further aim was to collect information on the dissemination of new technologies (apps) and to identify possible gaps in information services. The quantitative survey was conducted with the software LimeSurvey. Farmers were invited via various channels (professional journals, mailing lists of interest groups, Thünen homepage). The questionnaire contained the following thematic blocks: 1. general information on the farm, 2. soil compaction (perception and measures), 3. crop rotation and soil tillage, 4. technical equipment/process organisation (incl. contractors), 5. consulting and information offers (incl. apps).

Research domain: Agricultural Economics and Sociology