Winds of change for farmers: Matches and mismatches between experiences, views and the intention to act

Abstract

Agriculture is facing multifaceted changes. Farmers are eventually the ones who will implement changes or not depending on their knowledge, experience, views and other motives. To gain some insight into farmers’ decision making and to identify possible hotspots that require knowledge sharing, encouragement and subsidies, a farmer survey was arranged. 38,091 invitations were sent covering 80% of Finnish farmers and 4401 answers were received without significant distortions of representativeness due to age, geographical area, farm type, farm size or education. The survey contained four groups of questions with structured statements on awareness of future changes, personal experience of changes, views towards different measures and intentions to act. Farmers have observed many weather-related changes. They often see a need to take measures to manage crops, soil conditions and farming system. The measures considered to be important were often implemented or they were in the farmers’ near future plans. However, some mismatches occurred between scientific evidence and the farmers’ understanding and observations of changes, as well as concerning measures needed in the future. Hence, more efficient means are needed to share knowledge concerning future changes and coping measures. Moreover, policy incentives are important for investments because the economic situation is challenging for farmers and the measures primarily aim to decline the environmental footprint of agriculture.