Perceptions and responses to climate policy risks among California farmers

<p>This paper considers how farmers perceive and respond to climate change policy risks, and suggests that understanding these risk responses is as important as understanding responses to biophysical climate change impacts. Based on a survey of 162 farmers in California, we test three hypotheses regarding climate policy risk: (1) that perceived climate change risks will have a direct impact on farmer's responses to climate policy risks, (2) that previous climate change experiences will influence farmer's climate change perceptions and climate policy risk responses, and (3) that past experiences with environmental policies will more strongly affect a farmer's climate change beliefs, risks, and climate policy risk responses. Using a structural equation model we find support for all three hypotheses and furthermore show that farmers’ negative past policy experiences do not make them less likely to respond to climate policy risks through participation in a government incentive program. We discuss how future research and climate policies can be structured to garner greater agricultural participation. This work highlights that understanding climate policy risk responses and other social, economic and policy perspectives is a vital component of understanding climate change beliefs, risks and behaviors and should be more thoroughly considered in future work.</p

Genotypic trade-offs between water productivity and weed competition under the system of rice intensification in the Sahel

Yield, water productivity and weed-inflicted Relative Yield Losses (RYL) under Recommended Management Practices (RMP) were compared with the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) under double-cropping for two seasons and at two locations in the Senegal River Valley. Seven genotypes from Oryza sativa and Oryza glaberrima species and their interspecific crosses, were grown under weed-free conditions and in competition with weeds. Weed-free grain yields in SRI were never significantly different than those obtained with RMP. An average of 27% (range 18–46%) less water was applied to SRI than required for continuous flooding in RMP, resulting in consistently higher water productivity with SRI. However, when subjected to weed competition, mean SRI yields were significantly lower than RMP in three of four experimental iterations (an average of 28% less). Across experiments, weed-inflicted RYL was greater in SRI than RMP in 81% of observed cases. Weeds reduced the water productivity enhancing benefits of SRI by an average of 38% compared to weed-free treatments, resulting in significantly lower water productivity with SRI in three of four experiments. Rice genotypes Jaya and Sahel-202 were identified as relatively weed-competitive under each crop management system, however both have intermediate-length cycles and required more irrigation than shorter-duration genotypes. When weeds are carefully controlled, good yields and significant water savings can be achieved with SRI. However, this specific requirement of careful weed control might be difficult to meet by farmers coping with high weed infestations or with limited access to tools, inputs or labor to address them. Weed-competitive genotypes could help reduce weed-inflicted yield losses associated with SRI and other water-saving rice production systems, though future breeding efforts should address the trade-offs between weed competitive traits, water productivity and crop duration to meet the needs of farmers practicing double rice cropping

Global and Local Concerns: What Attitudes and Beliefs Motivate Farmers to Mitigate and Adapt to Climate Change?

<p>In response to agriculture's vulnerability and contribution to climate change, many governments are developing initiatives that promote the adoption of mitigation and adaptation practices among farmers. Since most climate policies affecting agriculture rely on voluntary efforts by individual farmers, success requires a sound understanding of the factors that motivate farmers to change practices. Recent evidence suggests that past experience with the effects of climate change and the psychological distance associated with people's concern for global and local impacts can influence environmental behavior. Here we surveyed farmers in a representative rural county in California's Central Valley to examine how their intention to adopt mitigation and adaptation practices is influenced by previous climate experiences and their global and local concerns about climate change. Perceived changes in water availability had significant effects on farmers' intention to adopt mitigation and adaptation strategies, which were mediated through global and local concerns respectively. This suggests that mitigation is largely motivated by psychologically distant concerns and beliefs about climate change, while adaptation is driven by psychologically proximate concerns for local impacts. This match between attitudes and behaviors according to the psychological distance at which they are cognitively construed indicates that policy and outreach initiatives may benefit by framing climate impacts and behavioral goals concordantly; either in a global context for mitigation or a local context for adaptation.</p