Request for proposals to develop and execute outreach to determine barriers to widespread adoption of climate-smart agriculture conservation practices that could generate carbon credits.

1. 1
Behavioral Economics Analysis for Agricultural Carbon Credit Generation
Request for Proposals
Released Tuesday, June 14, 2016
Project: Demonstration of a Scalable Nutrient Management Project to Reduce Nitrous Oxide Emissions
and Generate Voluntary or Compliance Greenhouse Gas Credits, USDA-NRCS Conservation Innovation
Grant
Project Leads: Jeremy Proville, Senior Manager, Office of Economic Policy and Analysis, EDF
Sara Kroopf, Agriculture Project Manager, Ecosystems, EDF
Contact: jproville@edf.org | 212-616-1344
skroopf@edf.org | 415-293-6115
I. Objective: Develop an understanding of the barriers to widespread adoption of the climate-smart
agriculture conservation practices, like optimized nitrogen fertilizer management and as-applied data
collection, implemented to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 1
In particular, investigate barriers to
adoption of such practices as they relate to behavioral inertia, perceived risks and decision making.
Findings, summarized in report form, will be central to research efforts informing a full economic
analysis of greenhouse gas mitigation by producers for carbon credit generation.
II. Scope of Work: An economics or agricultural services professional (Consultant) will conduct
outreach to corn and/or almond producers in the region pertinent to this project’s implementation
efforts (the Midwest and California). The method for outreach efforts is flexible but would need to
convey an adequate understanding of climate-smart practices, like optimized nitrogen fertilizer
management, which could lead to the creation of carbon credits. Thus, outreach in the form of phone
interviews or focus groups are preferred.
The outreach will be co-developed with EDF staff and will largely follow a willingness-to-accept framing,
with a goal of quantifying behavioral impediments to producer enrollment in projects that encourage
the optimization of nitrogen fertilizer management and as-applied data collection, which would lead to
the creation of carbon credits. Prior reports2
have done an excellent job documenting many of the
institutional, financial, and practical barriers to adoption for nitrogen fertilizer efficiency practices.
Nonetheless, one aspect that has not been addressed, and much less quantified, is the multitude of
cognitive biases and barriers relating to the actors themselves (i.e. the producers) that would limit
participation in these projects and carbon credit markets. In other words, this is the behavioral inertia
that inhibits the success of purely financial incentives provided in the carbon credit markets. The
knowledge of these personal motivations and biases is critical to extracting meaningful results out of
economic models, which often fail to take such factors into account.
All these behavioral aspects fall under the umbrella of changing long term norms. There is a vast array
of conditions needed to make this happen, unique to each actor’s circumstances. For example, it may be
that a landowner is inherently very skeptical of environmental programs, or particularly risk averse.
1
These all relate to nutrient use and are: rate reduction, inhibitors, split application, and multiple applications.
2
The most relevant and best example to read is this report prepared by The Climate Trust, as part of a past
Conservation Innovations Grant: http://www.climatetrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Promoting-increased-
nutrient-use-efficiency-through-carbon-markets-The-Climate-Trust.pdf

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The outreach administered to producers will seek to achieve two objectives:
 Understand the prevalent behavioral barriers to enrollment and cognitive biases at the actor
level, and rank these accordingly;
o In other words, what are the attitudes that producers hold toward climate -smart
practices that would bias the producers toward choosing a non-climate-smart practice
 To the extent possible, quantify the compensation that would be needed to overcome these
specific impediments (setting all other costs and savings aside).
Ideally, outreach efforts will obtain a response rate with a minimum of 30 respondents (needed to
achieve statistical significance). Results from the survey will be summarized, and a basic statistical
analysis will explore the data obtained. Anonymized data will be provided to EDF and may potentially be
used in the context of a peer-reviewed publication at a later date.
III. Deliverables:
1. Report summarizing findings;
2. Anonymized data of outreach responses.
IV. Payment: $26,0003
V. Timeframe:
RFP Released June 14, 2016
RFP Questions Due to EDF June 21, 2016
EDF Responses June 27, 2016
Bids Due COB July 1, 2016
Project Timeframe July 15-November 18, 2016
VI. Bidder’s Primary Contact for the RFP: Identify a contact person for the RFP, including contact
person’s name, title, organization name, mailing address, phone number, and e-mail address. Bidder
may also indicate other contacts within its organization that should be copied on email correspondence.
VII. General Proposal Requirements: Proposals can be either discussed over a phone call scheduled
with EDF project leads, or submitted in written form (not exceeding 3 pages, single-spaced, 12 point
font) to jproville@edf.org. Proposals should include a short summary of candidate’s experience with
agriculture, specifically outreach and engagement, knowledge of greenhouse gas markets, and climate-
smart agricultural practices.
3
Note: Contract will be subject to terms and conditions standard for a subcontract under a federal grant.