ABSTRACT

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is a government agency that seeks to integrate conservation goals with farmers' economic goals through voluntary private efforts, particularly through its Conservation Technical Assistance (CTA) program. Researchers note a lack of theoretical grounding in the associated body of literature. Therefore, a comprehensive theory of change was developed to guide a study of farmer adoption of conservation practices. The theoretical model incorporates factors from the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) approach and Community Capitals Framework (CCF). The purpose of this paper is to explain this theoretical model and discuss how it better conceptualized and operationalized variables that influence farmer conservation practice adoption. Because later empirical findings largely supported the anticipated causal hypotheses, the use of community development theory to understand other public programs that seek to achieve policy goals through voluntary, co-productive change on the part of participants is reasonable. 

摘要

美国农业部 (USDA) 自然资源保护局 (NRCS) 是一个政府机构，旨在通过自愿的私人努力，特别是通过其保护技术援助 (CTA) 计划，将保护目标与农民的经济目标结合起来。研究人员指出，相关文献缺乏理论基础。因此，发展了一个全面的变化理论来指导农民采用保护实践的研究。该理论模型结合了基于资产的社区发展 (ABCD) 方法和社区资本框架 (CCF) 的因素。本文的目的是解释这一理论模型并讨论它如何更好地概念化和操作影响农民保护实践采用的变量。