Comparison of mental models of agricultural ecosystem services using cultural consensus analysis

Understanding how practitioners conceptualize agricultural ecosystem services (ESs) and translate these into farm management decisions helps to achieve sustainable agro-ecosystem management. The present study explored mental models of farmers and experts for agricultural ESs using cultural consensus analysis. The study analyzed qualitative data from semi-structured interviews, pile sorting and questionnaires to determine the similarity and differences between mental models within and across groups of farmers and experts in Dezful County, Iran. The results showed that soil fertility and food production services were scored as the most important ESs, followed by job creation and biodiversity. The cluster derived from priorities at the pile sorting stage revealed that the ontology of the two groups was similar; however, they differed in terms of epistemology. Farmers understood an agricultural ecosystem as being a system that has both production (services) and potentials (carrying capacity, risks, resilience). Experts ignored some of the agricultural potentials and considered an agricultural system to be a set of structural factors under distinctive management. To reach consensus between the two groups, the co-creation of knowledge approach is recommended to create balance among ESs through the implementation of sustainable agricultural procedures.