A Differential Game Approach to Adoption of Conservation Practices

Agricultural production can degrade water sources through leaching of nitrogen and phosphorus from agricultural land to surface and ground water sources. To minimize the pollution from agricultural production, the U.S. Department of Agriculture promotes adoption of conservation practices. Previous studies that analyzed adoption of new technologies did not incorporate the two important features of technologies that are primarily used to conserve the environment; common resource and interaction between farmers. The current study develops a conceptual framework using a differential game to analyze adoption of new technologies that impact the water quality. The results of the current study show that the single agent optimization models of the previous studies would not lead to the optimal solution of the differential game. Current study also shows that if farmers act cooperatively, they devote more capital to conserve the environment.