Adoption of conservation agriculture in olive groves: Evidences from southern Spain

• Soil conservation practices (SCP) adoption increases the olive grove sustainability.
• Farmers’ SCP adoption is related to agricultural training and social capital (SC).
• The factors that determine the adoption of SCP are heterogeneous.
• Agricultural policies should consider the key role of SC to promote innovations.
• Regional studies on specific farming systems are pertinent and necessary.

The adoption of soil conservation practices (SCP) in olive groves in Andalusia, such as not burning olive-desuckering debris, shredding olive-pruning debris for use as inert soil cover and using cover crops under mower control, constitutes a huge advance towards sustainable olive growing. By adopting such SCP, olive growers can reduce the worrying level of erosion this activity causes, combat climate change and increase biodiversity. In this sense, the negative spillovers associated to the foregoing processes are highly significant both in qualitative and quantitative terms regarding the degradation of agricultural ecosystems. This paper seeks to identify the main factors that affect the adoption of these SCP. In order to do so, we use a trivariate probit model, therefore considering that the reasons behind adopting SCP may be interrelated. The results show how the factors that determine the adoption of such practices are related to the socio-demographic characteristics of olive growers, some of the characteristics of the olive grove itself and how it is managed and the role of social capital.