German Farmers' Perception of Climate Change Effects and Determinants influencing their Climate Awareness

Publication Type

Contribution to conference

Authors

Jänecke, A., Eisele, M., Reinmuth, E., Steinbach, J., Aurbacher, J.

Year of publication

2016

Published in

Schriften der Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften des Landbaues e.V.

Band/Volume

51/

Page (from - to)

407-418

Conference name

GEWISOLA 2015

Keywords

attributes of farm and household, demographic characteristics, German farmers, Perception of climate change effects, regional scale, weather variability

This paper focuses on the attitude of German farmers toward climate change effects and aims to identify determinants affecting their perception of weather conditions. For this purpose, descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression analyses were applied. Data was collected by means of a questionnaire based survey, which was conducted in May 2013 among German farmers in two study sites in Southwest Germany, the Central Swabian Alb and the Kraichgau. Analyses reveal that four main factors influence the perception of changes in local weather conditions and expectations about the effects. In particular, respondents’ age, location of the farm, share of agricultural income and farm profit are statistically significantly related with the degree of support for the respective weather statements. The findings further indicate age of farmer, location of the farm, method of production and farm size as significant predictors concerning the farm leader’s perception of climate change consequences. As descriptive statistics reveal, the majority of farmers perceive a change in weather conditions for their location, an increase in weather variability as well as decreasing predictability of weather conditions and expect consequences for their farming activities due to these developments.