Are we taking farmers seriously? A review of the literature on farmer perceptions and climate change, 2007–2018

Abstract

Abstract While there is broad agreement in theory that farmers' expertise should be integrated into discussions of land management and climate change adaptation in the food system, it is unknown how much research practice has integrated these recommendations. To gauge the state of the field, we reviewed and coded a sample set of papers (n = 105) concerning farmers' perceptions of climate change. Crosstabulation analysis reveals that: 1) researching farmer “perception” of climate change seems to be more frequent in the Global South, as opposed to the North, where other terms are used; 2) farmers are rarely described within their social-ecological contexts, and often simply have their observations segmented and assessed for verification against historical data or quantitative measurements; and 3) the broader dynamics of research practice may perpetuate extractive and colonial patterns of exchange between the Global North and South. We find that farmers from the Global South are rarely described, but often evaluated in their perceptions. We conclude that, with some exceptions, the field does not substantively embrace farmers’ perceptions as a contribution to adaptation discourse. We posit that the lack of in-depth qualitative methods in our sample may be correlated with the perception of farmers as passive and vulnerable, rather than viably adapting.