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

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 article is based on the results of a Q Methodology experiment with 22 Dutch farmers. The analysis identifies three different perspectives. The article discusses the primary characteristics of farmers who share a common perspective and comments on the results within the context of Dutch agriculture. The results suggest that farmers within the sample display a greater interest in private contracts with value chain payments ( pro-environmental entrepreneurs ), that some farmers are interested in the opportunity to sell carbon credits ( carbon farming pragmatics ), and that others ( traditional food providers ) are not easily to motivate by any of the incentives. Overall, a diverse set of incentives will be necessary to encourage farmers to improve soil health and carbon sequestration in soils. • Dutch farmers evaluated incentives to improve soil health. • Most farmers prefer private contracts for soil improvements • Carbon farming contracts appeal to a smaller farmer segment • CAP payments are evaluated as unattractive • Traditional farmers remain hard to motivate despite incentives