Browsing by Subject "Saaristomeri"
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(2023)Gypsum treatment of fields has proven to be a promising method of agriculture water protection. The purpose of this study is to investigate the drivers and barriers of gypsum treatment adoption among innovator and early adopter farmers. Based on the literature review, the factors affecting adoption of gypsum treatment are divided to farm, farmer, practice, program and context characteristics. The quantitative data of this study was gathered as a part of the KIPSI project from farmers that have or had suitable arable fields for gypsum treatment in the Archipelago Sea catchment area in spring 2020. The research data is analyzed with statistical methods including exploratory factor analysis, one-way analysis of variance, Kruskal-Wallis test, Chi-square test and Mann-Whitney U test. The results show that what determines the applying gypsum treatment of fields are practice, program and context characteristics such as information about the long term effects of gypsum, peer references, gypsum treatment being cost-free to the farmer, practical elements of the program, gypsum treatment’s environmental benefits and improving environmental image of agriculture. Farmer’s attitudes towards gypsum treatment play a role as well. On the other hand, farm or farmer sociodemographic characteristics such as farmer age, education, fulltime farming, share of rented land or total field area of the farm do not affect to the adoption of gypsum treatment. Out of the farm characteristics, only cereal farming is emphasized among the farmers that applied or are likely to apply gypsum treatment in the future in comparison to the farmers that are unlikely to apply gypsum treatment in the future. Exploratory factor analysis revealed four motivation factors to apply gypsum treatment of fields: water protection, fertilization and gaining new experiences, land improvement and protection of local waters and cost-effectiveness and recommendation of acquaintances. Water protection motivated farmers have positive views and attitudes towards gypsum treatment and agriculture water protection. Strong fertilization and gaining new experiences motivation is associated with cereal farming and the strong land improvement and protection of local waters motivation with large total field area of farm and younger age. Exploratory factor analysis revealed five motivation factors to not apply gypsum treatment of fields: doubts about the method, need for peer experiences and information about the long-term effects of gypsum, practical reasons, urgency and a view that the state of the waters is not weak and unsuitability of fields. Farmers having strong doubts about the method motivation have cautious attitude towards gypsum. They have also large field area as like the strong practical reasons motivated, who are also often fulltime farmers. Strong need for peer experiences and information about the long-term effects of gypsum motivation is associated with cereal farming. As this study focused on gypsum treatment, further research could expand to studying the acceptance as well as drivers and barriers of applying other agricultural water protection measures, such as structural lime treatment of fields.
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(2016)The aim of this study was to discover whether amending the soils with gypsum is a viable measure to decrease phosphorus runoff from the Archipelago Sea catchment and how the measure would contribute to the phosphorus reduction targets set by the Baltic Sea Action Plan and the Finnish marine strategy. This was done by calculating the runoff reduction potential and costs for gypsum and comparing these to an existing measure in the agri-environmental scheme, establishment of buffer zones. The results in this study indicate that gypsum would be a reasonable way to decrease phosphorus loading to the Archipelago Sea. An annual reduction of 68 tons would be possible with gypsum, with a total cost of 6.4 million euros – or 94 euros per reduced kilogramme. To achieve the same reduction amount with buffer zones, it would require nearly 11% share of buffer zones in the cultivated area, which would cost 7.5 million or 111 euros per kilogramme of reduced phosphorus. The reduction target set for the Archipelago Sea in the Finnish marine strategy is 100 tons of phosphorus, and 68% of this target may reached with gypsum. However, gypsum does not reduce soil phosphorus and thus is not a long-term solution for reducing phosphorus runoff. It would be a good measure to use in interim, while soil phosphorus levels are lowered through reduced fertilizer application rates, especially since it does not reduce cultivated field area nor affect yields negatively.
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