Do advisors perceive climate change as an agricultural risk? An in-depth examination of Midwestern U.S. Ag advisors’ views on drought, climate change, and risk management

Abstract

Through the lens of the Health Belief Model and Protection Motivation Theory, we analyzed interviews of 36 agricultural advisors in Indiana and Nebraska to understand their appraisals of climate change risk, related decision making processes and subsequent risk management advice to producers. Most advisors interviewed accept that weather events are a risk for US Midwestern agriculture; however, they are more concerned about tangible threats such as crop prices. There is not much concern about climate change among agricultural advisors. Management practices that could help producers adapt to climate change were more likely to be recommended by conservation and Extension advisors, while financial and crop advisors focused more upon season-to-season decision making (e.g., hybrid seeds and crop insurance). We contend that the agricultural community should integrate long-term thinking as part of farm decision making processes and that agricultural advisors are in a prime position to influence producers. In the face of increasing extreme weather events, climatologists and advisors should work more closely to reach a shared understanding of the risks posed to agriculture by climate change.

An Assessment of Public Perceptions of Climate Change Risk in Three Western U.S. Cities

“…Risk perception is critical as a driver of collective action for many human-environment issues, including climate change adaptation and mitigation (Church et al 2018;Shin and Choi 2015). Early studies indicated that risk perception was an important variable in models of climate change-related behaviors (O'Connor et al 1999).…”

Climate Change and Dairy in New York and Wisconsin: Risk Perceptions, Vulnerability, and Adaptation among Farmers and Advisors

“…Several studies have concluded that the climate change information generated by scientists must be made relevant to local contexts for farmers to find it useful [9][10][11][12][13][14]. Some [15] highlight the importance of taking farmer perspectives into account; they document how personal experiences with climate-related events inform risk perceptions and help determine adaptation actions among Vermont farmers.…”

Understanding scientists’ communication challenges at the intersection of climate and agriculture

“…The agricultural sector is comprised of multiple stakeholder groups in addition to producers. How producers make decisions and find information is complex; for example, they use many sources of information for farm management decisions, including family, other producers, media sources, university and governmental sources, and crop advisors [ 19 , 20 ]. Considering the complexity of decision-making and multitude of information sources, we sought to answer the following questions: How do climate scientists communicate with agricultural stakeholder groups about climate science?…”