Farmers’ perceptions of climate change: identifying types

Ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions from agriculture have been set by both
national governments and their respective livestock sectors.
We hypothesize that farmer self-identity influences their
assessment of climate change and their willingness to implement
measures which address the issue. Perceptions of
climate change were determined from 286 beef/sheep
farmers and evaluated using principal component analysis
(PCA). The analysis elicits two components which evaluate
identity (productivism and environmental responsibility),
and two components which evaluate behavioral capacity to
adopt mitigation and adaptation measures (awareness and
risk perception). Subsequent Cluster Analyses reveal four
farmer types based on the PCA scores. ‘The Productivist’
and ‘The Countryside Steward’ portray low levels of
awareness of climate change, but differ in their motivation to
adopt pro-environmental behavior. Conversely, both ‘The
Environmentalist’ and ‘The Dejected’ score higher in their
awareness of the issue. In addition, ‘The Dejected’ holds a
high sense of perceived risk; however, their awareness is not
conflated with an explicit understanding of agricultural GHG
sources. With the exception of ‘The Environmentalist’, there
is an evident disconnect between perceptions of agricultural
emission sources and their contribution towards GHG
emissions amongst all types. If such linkages are not conceptualized,
it is unlikely that behavioral capacities will be
realized. Effective communication channels which encourage
action should target farmers based on the groupings
depicted. Therefore, understanding farmer types through the
constructs used in this study can facilitate effective and tailored
policy development and implementation.