ADAPTIVE TARGETING: ENGAGING FARMERS TO IMPROVE TARGETING AND ADOPTION OF AGRICULTURAL CONSERVATION PRACTICES 1 Margaret M. Kalcic, Jane Frankenberger, Indrajeet Chaubey, Linda Prokopy, and Laura Bowling 2 ABSTRACT: Targeting of agricultural conservation practices to cost-effective locations has long been of interest to watershed managers, yet its implementation cannot succeed without meaningful engagement of agricultural producers who are decision makers on the lands they farm. In this study, we engaged 14 west-central Indiana producers and landowners in an adaptive targeting experiment. Interviews carried out prior to targeting pro- vided rich spatial information on existing conservation practices as well as producers’ preferences for future con- servation projects. We targeted six of the most accepted conservation practices using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool and spatial optimization using a genetic algorithm approach. Fairly optimal conservation sce- narios were possible with even the most limiting constraints of farmer-accepted practices. We presented in fol- low-up interviews a total of 176 conservation practice recommendations on 103 farm fields to 10 farmers whose lands were targeted for conservation. Primary findings indicated producers were interested in the project, were open to hearing recommendations about their lands, and expressed a high likelihood of adopting 35% of targeted recommendations. Farmers generally viewed the interview process and presentation of results quite favorably, and the interviews were found to build trust and make the targeting process more acceptable to them. (KEY TERMS: watershed management; optimization; best management practices (BMPs); nutrients; public par- ticipation; conservation practice adoption; interviews.) Kalcic, Margaret M., Jane Frankenberger, Indrajeet Chaubey, Linda Prokopy, and Laura Bowling, 2015. Adap- tive Targeting: Engaging Farmers to Improve Targeting and Adoption of Agricultural Conservation Practices. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 51(4): 973-991, DOI: 10.1111/1752-1688.12336 INTRODUCTION Watershed managers have long supported strategic placement of conservation practices in the landscape, also known as targeting (e.g., Duda and Johnson, 1985; Hession and Shanholtz, 1988; Crumpton, 2001; Veith et al., 2004; Heathwaite et al., 2005; Diebel et al., 2008, 2009; Tuppad et al., 2010). In the United States (U.S.), a variety of policy incentives encourage agricultural producers to implement conservation practices (Harrington et al., 1985), but these incen- tives alone may not produce economically efficient solutions since they are not based on the true magni- tude of pollutant reduction (Helfand and House, 1995). Generally, incentives are available to all on a “first come, first serve” basis, and enrollment is vol- untary even though this is not considered the most effective way to reduce pollution. Nonpoint source pollution often originates in hotspots or critical 1 Paper No. JAWRA-14-0039-P of the Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA). Received January 27, 2014; accepted December 9, 2014. © 2015 American Water Resources Association. Discussions are open until six months from issue publication. 2 Research Fellow (Kalcic), University of Michigan Water Center, 625 E. Liberty, Suite 300, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48104; and Professor (Frankenberger), Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Professor and Department Head (Chaubey), Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Associate Professor (Prokopy), Forestry and Natural Resources, and Associate Professor (Bowling), Agronomy, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, 47907. (E-Mail/Kalcic: mkalcic@umich.edu). JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN WATER RESOURCES ASSOCIATION JAWRA 973 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN WATER RESOURCES ASSOCIATION Vol. 51, No. 4 AMERICAN WATER RESOURCES ASSOCIATION August 2015