We analyzed the prospects and challenges for silvopasture adoption in south-central Florida using the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats approach in combination with analytic hierarchy process. We used preference data from opinion leaders who have had extensive knowledge about silvopasture practices in south-central Florida. Results reveal that strengths and opportunities for silvopasture adoption outweigh its weaknesses and threats. The participants perceive that land stewardship and diversification of income as major strengths of silvopasture and environmental benefits and government support for silvopasture practices as important opportunities. While long-term investment requirement and poor-quality soils are identified as weaknesses for the adoption of silvopasture, government regulation relating to land-use practices is considered as a critical threat. These results provide important insights for policy developments relating to silvopasture practices.
Silvopasture is an agroforestry technology that combines trees and pasture with cattle operations (Gold et al., 2000; Clason and Sharrow, 2000). It provides various environmental benefits including soil conservation, carbon sequestration, water quality improvement, biodiversity conservation, and aesthetics (Alavalapati and Nair, 2001; Clason and Sharrow, 2000). This system is thought to have a potential of diversifying the risk and enhancing household income (Kurtz et al., 1996). Lundgren et al. (1983) found that pine silvopasture systems in the southeast could have as much as a 4.5% positive rate of return. Clason (1995) reported that silvopasture utilizing loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) in Louisiana could produce greater net returns than either pure pasture systems or pure timber systems. Grado et al. (2001) found that raising beef cattle with pine plantations can be profitable in southern Mississippi. Stainback and Alavalapati (2004) found that combining longleaf pine production with cattle ranching is more profitable than conventional forestry or cattle ranching in Florida. However, silvopasture adoption among North American farmers is still very limited (Garrett et al., 2000).
The prospects for silvopasture adoption are often analyzed using financial cash-flow or benefit-cost techniques (Current et al., 1995; Kurtz, 2000). These analyses, however, incorporate only tangible and commensurable inputs and outputs information to derive decision criteria. A host of environmental, social, and institutional factors, which cannot be quantified easily, may influence landowner's adoption decisions. It is important to know how landowner's preferences to environmental services, uncertainty associated with future taxes, and future land use regulations, for example, influence their silvopasture adoption decisions.
In this study, we attempt to assess the effect of environmental, economic, and social factors relating to silvopasture adoption decisions. We use the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) approach in combination with analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to achieve this task. The SWOT–AHP allows us to define silvopasture adoption decision process in a hierarchical structure of factors, evaluate factors in pairs, and quantify the relative importance of each factor to the adoption decision. We utilize preference data from selected opinion leaders involved in silvopasture practices in south-central Florida. Although SWOT–AHP is an established method in strategic planning literature, to our knowledge, this is the first study to apply it to agroforestry.
This study illustrates the application of SWOT–AHP approach to assess the importance of problems and prospects relating to silvopasture adoption. The agricultural research and extension service branch, which develops and disseminates silvopasture technologies, and ranchers, who are the potential adopters of silvopasture are considered as the key stakeholders of this process. Drawing on the concept of opinion leader and representative democracy principle, we selected three individuals who had experience and knowledgeable about silvopasture to represent the research/extension agency and cattle ranchers. Results suggest that land stewardship, diversification of income, environmental benefits, and government support programs are the main prospects for silvopasture adoption. Long-term investment and uncertainty associated with future government regulations are found to pose challenges to silvopasture adoption.
It is important to recognize that the environmental services produced through silvopature practices are not exclusive to landowners. As such they may not consider them in their adoption decisions. If environmental services are internalized through incentive programs, the profitability of silvopasture relative to conventional ranching would improve and ranchers may adopt silvopasture more. One window of opportunity to make it happen is to consider silvopasture practices to be eligible for government support programs such as the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) payments. Furthermore, ranchers have to deal with long-term investments if they switch to sivlopasture. If they perceive that the profits of silvopasture would be uncertain because of future regulations or policies related to the environment, endangered species or taxes, they are less likely to come forward to invest in silvopasture. A stable policy environment would further sivlopasture adoption.
As the results derived in this study are from a small sample, a caution should be taken in using these findings in a broader context. A large sample is highly desirable to capture greater heterogeneity in preferences and to make generalizations. A mail survey approach can be followed to gather information from a large sample. Alternatively, respondents can be invited to convenient locations and ask them to deliberate the factors and come to a consensus on pair-wise comparison. One of the problems of this approach is that some people may dominate the deliberations and influence the choice. It would be interesting to compare the results of individual responses with those from group consensus.
