Alabama Agricultural Stakeholder's Perceptions of Weather and Climate-Based Information

Climate change is altering weather patterns that directly impact agricultural production including increases in temperature and too much or too little precipitation. The adoption of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is one way for producers to increase their resilience to climatic changes and extreme weather events. CSA tools and practices include, but are not limited to, soil moisture monitors, variable rate irrigation, and cover crops. However, the implementation of CSA technologies is complex and expensive. Careful considerations are required to manage the barriers and challenges of adoption including when and which technologies are best given the on-farm characteristics, how much they will cost in the short-term, and what benefits and return on investment are expected over the long-term.

To understand the complexities of CSA decision-making, researchers and Extension specialists need to know how producers and their advisors (e.g., crop consultants, Extension [field] agents) articulate their weather and climate perceptions. Understanding these perceptions aids in the co-development of knowledge (CDK) about CSA. CDK is an emerging strategy for collaboration and production of research that is meaningful and useful to end users. This presentation comes from a larger ongoing project called the Future of Farming which examines the barriers to adoption of CSA. This project takes place in Alabama among row crop farmers. One aspect of the project is the farmer focused learning network that is geared towards CDK about CSA. Thus, this presentation examines one aspect of the CSA CDK process asking: “How do stakeholders (i.e. producers, crop consultants, Extension agents) perceive weather and climate?” For this analysis, data were collected at 23 stakeholder events. During these events, various participatory approaches were utilized including panelist discussions, “serious games,” and on-field visits. This allowed participants to discuss various topics as a group, while also learning from researchers in the field. In addition, the dataset includes 38 interviews of producers (n=25), crop consultants (n=6), and Extension field agents (n=7). All data were video recorded, transcribed in Otter, and uploaded to Nvivo for analysis of the use of meteorological language and concepts. Keyword searches were based on concepts and concept dimensions drawn from the peer-reviewed literature, project objectives, and the data itself. The analysis included evaluation of word clouds, keyword counts, and cross-tabulations of keywords.

Perceptions among all stakeholders studied were found to be more negative toward weather and climate (e.g., perceived distrust and uncertainty in weather forecasts). There were fewer positive mentions (e.g., beneficial weather phenomena). In addition, many stakeholders do not believe climate change is human caused. Instead, stakeholders tend to acknowledge changes to their farm, region, or agroecological environment more broadly, but will not attribute these changes to the climate. Finally, there are differences in language used among meteorological topics between the two stakeholder groups. For example, producers refer to wind more often than agricultural advisors. Differences in language usage can impede CDK and lead to confusion about weather and climate impacts. An increase in weather and climate-based field day events focused on, and in collaboration with, agricultural communities may lessen miscommunication about weather and climate-based issues between stakeholder groups and increase CDK about CSA.