Factors underlying Dutch farmers' intentions to adapt their agronomic management to reduce Fusarium species infection in wheat

Abstract

Infection of wheat by Fusarium species can lead to Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) and mycotoxin contamination, thereby reducing food quality and food safety, and leading to economic losses. Agronomic management through the implementation of various pre-harvest measures can reduce the probability of Fusarium spp. infection in the wheat field. To design interventions that could stimulate wheat farmers to (further) improve their agronomic management to reduce FHB, it is key to understand farmers' behaviour towards adapting their management. The aim of this paper was to understand the intention, underlying behavioural constructs, and beliefs of Dutch wheat farmers to adapt their agronomic management to reduce FHB and mycotoxin contamination in wheat, applying the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). Data were collected from 100 Dutch wheat farmers via a questionnaire. The standard TPB analysis was extended with an assessment of the robustness of the belief results to account for the statistical validity of the analysis on TPB beliefs (i.e. to address the so-called expectancy-value muddle). Forty-six percent of the farmers had a positive intention to change their management in the next 5 years. The two behavioural constructs significantly related to this intention were attitude and social norm, whereas association with the perceived behavioural control construct was insignificant indicating that farmers did not perceive any barriers to change their behaviour. Relevant attitudinal beliefs indicated specific attributes of wheat, namely yield, quality and safety (lower mycotoxin contamination). This indicates that strengthening these beliefs-by demonstrating that a change in management will result in a higher yield and quality and lower mycotoxin levels-will result in a stronger attitude and, subsequently, a higher intention to change management. Interventions to strengthen these beliefs should preferably go by the most important referents for social norms, which were the buyers and the farmer cooperatives in this study.

Incentives to Stimulate European Wheat Farmers to Adapt Their Fusarium Species Mycotoxin Management

“…The specific question and answer formats of the variables can be found in Table 1 , Table 3 and Table 4 . The questions were part of a questionnaire among European wheat farmers which collected information on aspects such as farm and farmer characteristics, pre-harvest measures implemented by the farmer [ 17 ], perceived (cost-)effectiveness of pre-harvest measures, and intention, with underlying behavioral constructs based on the Theory of Planned Behavior of farmers to adapt their agronomic management approach [ 57 ]. The questionnaire was designed and conducted within the European Union’s Horizon 2020 MyToolbox project [ 58 ].…”

Occurrence, Impact on Agriculture, Human Health, and Management Strategies of Zearalenone in Food and Feed: A Review

“…Infection of crops by Fusarium growth and accumulation of ZEN has been a major concern for food and feed quality and safety, leading to economic losses. Hence, interventions to reduce contamination should be designed [249]. These interventions involve good agricultural practices (GAP's) and good manufacturing practices (GMP's) [250].…”