U.S. Agricultural Producer Perceptions of Climate Change

Rejesus, Roderick M.; Mutuc-Hensley, Maria; Mitchell, Paul D.; Coble, Keith H.; Knight, Thomas O.

doi:10.1017/s1074070800005216

Cited by 57 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Clearly the effects of extreme weather will influence how farmers respond to climate change (Rejesus 2013). However, non-climatic forces and conditions also influence what farmers intend to do in response to a changing climate (Smit and Skinner 2002).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Farmers who reported a high level of confidence in their current practices were distinct from farmers who had a higher perception of weather-related risks because these farmers who had higher perceptions of risk were more likely to increase their use of the practices of interest given projected climate changes. Farmers manage risks through a range of management decisions (Rejesus 2013), not all of them examined here, so there may be factors that are driving confidence that we do not adequately capture (e.g., connectivity to markets, low debt-to-asset ratio). High levels of confidence may present a barrier to making necessary farm-scale changes in response to more extreme and variable weather (Arbuckle et al 2014); at least to the degree that it inhibits the use of critical adaptive strategies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Farmers also employ a number of risk management strategies to mitigate both weather-related and financial risks associated with their agricultural production systems. Rejesus (2013) found that farmers are likely to employ a diverse set of risk management strategies to deal with extreme weather, which can include diversifying crops, use of crop insurance, modifying lease arrangements, and retiring from farming. Specifically, crop insurance is a key risk management tool currently used by many farmers across the Corn Belt, particularly as a way to protect their farm operations from catastrophic crop losses caused by extreme weather events (NASS 2014a).…”

Section: Conceptual Framework For Agricultural Adaptationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yet there is very little research that examines how farmers might respond to climate change stressors (Howden et al 2007;Rejesus 2013). This study sought to answer the research question: how will climate change and associated weather variability influence farmer adoption and increased use of key conservation and production practices?…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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What would farmers do? Adaptation intentions under a Corn Belt climate change scenario

2016

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This paper examines farmer intentions to adapt to global climate change by analyzing responses to a climate change scenario presented in a survey given to largescale farmers (n = 4778) across the US Corn Belt in 2012. Adaptive strategies are evaluated in the context of decision making and farmers' intention to increase their use of three production practices promoted across the Corn Belt: no-till farming, cover crops, and tile drainage. This paper also provides a novel conceptual framework that bridges a typology of adaptation with concepts that help predict intentionality in behavior change models. This conceptual framework was developed to facilitate examination of adaptive decision making in the context of agriculture. This research effort examines key factors that influence farmers' intentions to increase their use of the practices evaluated given a climate change scenario. Twenty-two covariates are examined across three models developed for no-till farming, cover crops, and tile drainage. Findings highlight that farmers who believed they should adjust their practices to protect their farm from the negative impacts of increased weather variability were more likely to indicate that they would increase their use of each of the practices in response to climate change. Additionally, visiting with other farmers to observe their practices was positively associated with farmers' intentions to increase their use of the adaptive strategies examined. Farmers who were currently using no-till farming, cover crops, and tile drainage were also more likely to plan to increase their use of these practices in response to increased weather variability associated with climate change. However, farmers who reported high levels of confidence in their current practices were less likely to plan on changing their use of these practices in response to climatic changes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Conceptual Framework For Agricultural Adaptationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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What would farmers do? Adaptation intentions under a Corn Belt climate change scenario

2016

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“…An emerging number of studies are now appearing (e.g., Gramig et al 2013;Rejesus et al 2013;Wheeler et al 2013), but these are still limited compared to the numbers of studies in low-income regions of the world like parts of Asia and Africa. As noted by Brown and Funk (2008), the impacts of climate change on subsistence farmers are likely to be much more extreme due both to more immediate and extreme temperature and precipitation changes and due to the lack of infrastructure and adaptation options in these locations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Farmers and Climate Change: A Cross-National Comparison of Beliefs and Risk Perceptions in High-Income Countries

Prokopy

Arbuckle

Barnes

et al. 2015

Environmental Management

104

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Climate change has serious implications for the agricultural industry-both in terms of the need to adapt to a changing climate and to modify practices to mitigate for the impacts of climate change. In high-income countries where farming tends to be very intensive and large scale, it is important to understand farmers' beliefs and concerns about climate change in order to develop appropriate policies and communication strategies. Looking across six study sites-Scotland, Midwestern United States, California, Australia, and two locations in New Zealand-this paper finds that over half of farmers in each location believe that climate change is occurring. However, there is a wide range of beliefs regarding the anthropogenic nature of climate change; only in Australia do a majority of farmers believe that climate change is anthropogenic. In all locations, a majority of farmers believe that climate change is not a threat to local agriculture. The different policy contexts and existing impacts from climate change are discussed as possible reasons for the variation in beliefs. This study compared varying surveys from the different locations and concludes that survey research on farmers and climate change in diverse locations should strive to include common questions to facilitate comparisons.

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United States agricultural stakeholder views and decisions on climate change

Chatrchyan

Erlebacher

Chaopricha

et al. 2017

WIREs Climate Change

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Climate change poses unprecedented challenges to agricultural production globally and in the United States; it is both vulnerable to the impacts of a changing climate and a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Because farmers need to quickly adapt to reduce their risks and emissions, there is a pressing need to better understand the process by which they make decisions. This complex decision‐making process includes many factors, such as farmers’ beliefs; knowledge and capacity to make changes; the information they receive from Extension, industry, and social networks (e.g., family and peers); economics and regulations; and farm‐scale and environmental issues (including personal experience with extreme weather). This study assesses the published literature on U.S. agricultural stakeholder views and decisions on climate change, focusing on farmers and ranchers from different regions. We identify key themes that emerge from the literature on how stakeholder views about extreme weather and climate change relate to decisions about adaptation and mitigation practices. This review finds that although the majority of U.S. farmers believe the climate is changing, many remain skeptical of the issue and uncertain about the anthropogenic causes of climate change. Farmers’ climate change mitigation and adaptation decisions also vary widely and are often correlated with belief or other factors such as personal experience with extreme weather, costs of change, or fear of regulation. We conclude with the implications of the research, including the importance of understanding farmers’ view and actions and issue framing, and implications for researchers, Extension and policy makers, both nationally and globally. WIREs Clim Change 2017, 8:e469. doi: 10.1002/wcc.469 This article is categorized under: Perceptions, Behavior, and Communication of Climate Change > Perceptions of Climate Change

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U.S. Agricultural Producer Perceptions of Climate Change

Cited by 57 publications

References 22 publications

What would farmers do? Adaptation intentions under a Corn Belt climate change scenario

What would farmers do? Adaptation intentions under a Corn Belt climate change scenario

Farmers and Climate Change: A Cross-National Comparison of Beliefs and Risk Perceptions in High-Income Countries

United States agricultural stakeholder views and decisions on climate change

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