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.
Highlights
In the Netherlands, wheat is cultivated on around 7,000 farms with an annual total size of 120,000 ha [1]
Most Dutch farmers had a positive (46%) or a neutral (33%) intention to adapt their agronomic management to reduce Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) and mycotoxin contamination in the coming five years (INT), while 21% of the farmers had a negative intention towards a future adaptation (Fig 2)
Results of the current study showed that both ATT and subjective norm (SN) are positively and statistically significantly related to the intention of Dutch wheat farmers to adapt their agronomic management in the coming five years
Summary
In the Netherlands, wheat is cultivated on around 7,000 farms with an annual total size of 120,000 ha [1]. Legal maximum limits for the presence of mycotoxins in feed and food have been set in Europe and other parts of the world to protect animal and human health [8]. In spite of these limits, human exposure assessments in Europe have shown that the intake of some mycotoxins is currently above the tolerable daily intake for certain vulnerable groups [7, 9]. The past four years, two large European Union’s Horizon 2020 funded research and innovation projects focussed on further reducing mycotoxin contamination in feed and food commodities like wheat The past four years, two large European Union’s Horizon 2020 funded research and innovation projects focussed on further reducing mycotoxin contamination in feed and food commodities like wheat (www.mycokey. eu and www.mytoolbox.eu)
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