Perceiving to learn or learning to perceive? Understanding farmers' perceptions and adaptation to climate uncertainties

Highlights

• Farmers perceive more weather variability rather than to climate change.

• Different perceptions are due to different climate impacts on farming system.

• Farmers' adaptation emerges from perceiving processes.

• Adaptive capacity is driven by social capital, institutional setting and technology.

• “Learning to perceive” is essential for enhance farmers' adaptation to climate change.

Abstract

Perception not only shapes knowledge but knowledge also shapes perception. Humans adapt to the natural world through a process of learning in which they interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment and act accordingly. In this research, we examined how farmers' decision making is shaped in the context of changing climate. Using empirical data (face-to-face semi-structured interviews and questionnaires) on four Mediterranean farming systems from a case study located in Oristano (Sardinia, Italy) we sought to understand farmers' perception of climate change and their behaviors in adjustment of farming practices. We found different perceptions among farmer groups were mainly associated with the different socio-cultural and institutional settings and perceived relationships between climate factors and impacts on each farming systems. The research findings on different perceptions among farmer groups can help to understand farmers' current choices and attitudes of adaptation for supporting the development of appropriate adaptation strategies. In addition, the knowledge of socio-cultural and economic factors that lead to biases in climate perceptions can help to integrate climate communication into adaptation research for making sense of climate impacts and responses at farm level.

Introduction

Climate change (CC) is raising significant issues for European agricultural development strategies. European agriculture will face serious challenges in the coming decades, such as competition for water resources (Koutroulis et al., 2013), combating invasive exotic plant species, pests and microbes (Bardsley and Edwards-Jones, 2007), rising costs due to environmental protection policies, and uncertainty in the effectiveness of current policies as CC adaptation strategies (Olesen and Bindi, 2002).

Farming activities are strongly shaped by local climate conditions, since impacts of changes in climate and bio-physical factors are perceived by farmers through their daily interaction with environment. The emerging reality of CC potentially increases the level of farmers' concern about the sustainable agricultural practices needed for mitigating greenhouse gases emissions as well as for adapting to the impacts of CC (Fleming and Vanclay, 2010). However, farmers' decisions about managing their farming activities in the framework of sustainability are plagued with uncertainty. They need to undertake continuous adjustments to their practices to adapt to an uncertain future, and uncertainty can lead farmers to perceive their farming activities as unpredictable, hence likely constraining their income (Dono et al., 2013), willingness and/or capacity to respond (Islam et al., 2013).

Farmers' decisions are traditionally made based on the aim of maximizing the profit of farming activities taking into account the market, subsidies, grants and restrictions. In the context of changing climate, farmers face difficulties in making decisions for their farming activities simply because CC is an uncertain and wicked issue that is difficult to foresee (Abildtrup et al., 2006, Audsley et al., 2006). Farmers perceive their environment and make decisions accordingly and this can result in mal-adaptations due to biased perception, cognition and lack of information (Etkin and Ho, 2007, Mubaya et al., 2012). Farmers may feel uncertain about addressing investments for their activities. Unpredictability may push farmers to adopt/not adopt agricultural practices, introduce/not introduce new changes in technologies, and maintain the same farming practices over time and space or abandon farming activities.

Farmers' adaptation to CC occurs within a socio-ecological context, and their perception determines the acceptability of adaptation measures posed by policy domains (Tam and McDaniels, 2013). Understanding farmers' perceptions of CC helps to understand their behaviors about adjustments they made/will make in their farming practices in order to respond to CC consequences (Tambo and Abdoulaye, 2013). Such understanding can help researchers to better orientate the agronomic research on adaptation at farm level's and policy makers to develop adaptation policies (Habiba et al., 2012).

In this research, we analyzed how farmers' decision making is shaped by their perceptions of climate change. Using empirical data from a local case study on the four most representative farming systems (i.e., intensive dairy cattle farming, extensive sheep farming, rice farming and horticulture) in the province of Oristano (Sardinia, Italy), we sought to answer the following questions: (1) What are farmers' perceptions of CC? (2) Are there any differences of perceptions of CC among different farmer groups? (3) How does farmers' perception influence their farming decisions and their willingness and capacity to adapt to climate uncertainties?