Finnish farmers’ views towards fluctuating and changing precipitation patterns pave the way for the future

Abstract

At high latitudes of Europe climate change is projected to alter the risk of flooding and drought depending on the season. Farmers are the ones who decide how and when to adapt to excess, scarcity, and even to extreme precipitation events in agriculture. To understand farmer’s views on the needs and means to manage future changes in precipitation, a farmer survey was organized in 2018 with 4401 respondents and a follow-up survey in 2020 with 2000 respondents. The aims were: (1) to understand farmers’ views on future changes in precipitation patterns, (2) to gain an insight into farmer views on prioritization of the potential key adaptation measures (irrigation, drainage and maintenance of soil conditions) to future floods and drought episodes and thereby, (3) to be better able to support farmers in their primary task of food production in a sustainable manner in a changing climate. This study highlighted that farmers need financial support, but also more information about the costs and benefits of the measures to cope with changing precipitation patterns—not least due to the many uncertainties in projecting future precipitation patterns. As fluctuating precipitation have many environmental impacts in addition to those on production per se, costs and investments of adaptation to climatic constraints should not be payable only by the farmers. Farmers prioritized the soil organic content (SOC) and well-functioning subsurface drainage as the main objects of their attention, and these were clearly ahead of future use of irrigation. Taking care of subsurface drainage, soil structure, SOC and functionality is the long-term means to maintain and improve sustainability and productivity, while the implementation of irrigation is a more flexible, one-off measure that requires short-term reactivity as an adaptation option.