Identifying barriers and motivators for adoption of multifunctional perennial cropping systems by landowners in the Upper Sangamon River Watershed, Illinois Chloe M. Mattia . Sarah Taylor Lovell . Adam Davis Received: 14 August 2016 / Accepted: 7 December 2016 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2016 Abstract The demand on agriculture to meet food security goals and mitigate environmental impacts requires multifunctional land-use strategies. Consid- ering both farmer motivations and rural development needs, one option is to transition marginal farmland to perennial crops. In this study, we considered the potential for Multifunctional Perennial Cropping Sys- tems (MPCs) that would simultaneously provide production and ecosystem service benefits. We exam- ined adoption potential of MPCs on marginal farmland through an agricultural landowner survey in the Upper Sangamon River Watershed in Illinois, USA. We identified adoption preferences among landowners in conjunction with socio-demographic characteristics that would facilitate targeted implementation. Hierar- chical cluster analysis and discriminant analysis identified landowner categories and key factors affect- ing adoption potential. Landowner age, appreciation for plant diversity, and future farm management involvement were the strongest predictors of potential MPCs adoption. The landowner categories identified within the survey data, supplemented with focus group discussions, suggested a high adoption potential farmer profile as a young, educated landowner with known marginal land they would consider converting to MPCs for improved soil and water quality conservation. Keywords Multifunctional cropping systems Á Survey Á Adoption Á Hierarchical cluster analysis Introduction In order for agriculture to provide food, fiber, and fuel products to the growing population, landowners require strategic land management plans (Foley et al. 2011). The 2012 USDA agricultural census reported 127 million hectares (ha) of harvested farmland (USDA NASS 2012). However 24.68 million ha of this land is unsuitable for conventional row crop production due to low productivity caused by issues such as soil erosion, proximity to ecologically sensi- tive areas, and topography (Cai et al. 2011; Gelfand et al. 2013). Marginal land that is unproductive for row crops may be better suited for multifunctional land-use strategies. Alternative management systems using adaptive agricultural practices can improve produc- tion and sustainability in the face of climate change and environmental mitigation pressure (Nair et al. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10457-016-0053-6) contains supple- mentary material, which is available to authorized users. A. Davis USDA-ARS Global Change and Photosynthesis Research Unit, Urbana, IL, USA C. M. Mattia (&) Á S. T. Lovell Á A. Davis Department of Crop Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1201 W. Dorner Drive (1105), Urbana, IL 61801, USA e-mail: mattia2@illinois.edu 123 Agroforest Syst DOI 10.1007/s10457-016-0053-6