Information about Climate Change Mitigation: What Do Farmers Think?

Abstract

The adoption of new practices by farmers is one of the key strategies to lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from food production. In this context, effective knowledge transfer systems are essential to inform farmers about climate change, and to convince them of the benefits of new technologies. In this article, farmers’ opinions about climate change, their own efforts to mitigate climate change, and their suggestions on how to improve agricultural advice were assessed. To this end, a survey with over 500 livestock farmers was conducted in Ireland. The findings reveal a high awareness of the urgency to address climate change in general, but many farmers also think agricultural GHG emissions are an overstated problem. In addition, half of the surveyed farmers believe that implementing GHG mitigation measures will lower their profits. These findings underline the need to provide effective knowledge transfer to facilitate the uptake of GHG mitigation measures. When asking farmers directly, by way of text analysis, it emerges that simple messages, group and practical advice that is tailored to individual farming situations is important to farmers. As such, this article provides important insights that are of relevance for designing advisory campaigns to promote climate change mitigation.