Archetypes of climate change adaptation among large-scale arable farmers in southern Romania

Effects of climate change and especially the associated climate variability require farmers to adjust to increasing frequencies of extreme events. In the agriculturally highly productive Romanian Plain, the frequency, intensity, and duration of heatwaves and drought have increased over the past 20 y...

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Autores principales: Necula, Cristiana, Rossing, Walter A.H., Easdale, Marcos Horacio
Formato: Artículo
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Springer 2024
Materias:
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12123/18575
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13593-024-00970-8
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-024-00970-8
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author Necula, Cristiana
Rossing, Walter A.H.
Easdale, Marcos Horacio
author_browse Easdale, Marcos Horacio
Necula, Cristiana
Rossing, Walter A.H.
author_facet Necula, Cristiana
Rossing, Walter A.H.
Easdale, Marcos Horacio
author_sort Necula, Cristiana
collection INTA Digital
description Effects of climate change and especially the associated climate variability require farmers to adjust to increasing frequencies of extreme events. In the agriculturally highly productive Romanian Plain, the frequency, intensity, and duration of heatwaves and drought have increased over the past 20 years. Although recent surveys revealed farmers’ awareness of climate change and enumerated a number of farm adaptation measures in the Romanian context, a systems approach to adaptation that allows conclusions on farm vulnerability and adaptive capacity is missing. Here, we use archetypal analysis to elucidate and characterize for the first time the types of adaptation responses of arable farmers in southern Romania. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 30 farmers managing 51,500 ha located across the southern lowlands of Romania, selected for their diversity of management approaches. Farmers were asked about experienced climatic disturbances, crop production losses during the most extreme events over the past 5–10 years, and the adaptation measures they implemented over that period of time. In addition, structural characteristics of the farm were recorded. The adaptation measures were classified and mapped on the efficiency, substitution, and redesign gradient used to classify sustainability stages. Results revealed three archetypes of adaptation, consisting of measures at field and farm level ranging from predominantly efficiency-enhancing ones (e.g., crop choice and management and risk insurance) to complete farm redesign involving agrotechnical and financial management changes. Structural farm characteristics did not explain differences between farms in their association with one of the archetypes. Our approach and results show for the first time both the need for strengthening farmer-level support in one of Europe’s key food production areas and the lessons that can be drawn from the outlier adaptation examples. Current European and national policies offer opportunities for farmer organizations in Romania to make these conclusions actionable.
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spelling INTA185752024-07-19T11:35:02Z Archetypes of climate change adaptation among large-scale arable farmers in southern Romania Necula, Cristiana Rossing, Walter A.H. Easdale, Marcos Horacio Agroecología Agroecology Agricultor Farmers Cambio Climático Climate Change Variabilidad del Clima Climate Variability Rumanía Romania Effects of climate change and especially the associated climate variability require farmers to adjust to increasing frequencies of extreme events. In the agriculturally highly productive Romanian Plain, the frequency, intensity, and duration of heatwaves and drought have increased over the past 20 years. Although recent surveys revealed farmers’ awareness of climate change and enumerated a number of farm adaptation measures in the Romanian context, a systems approach to adaptation that allows conclusions on farm vulnerability and adaptive capacity is missing. Here, we use archetypal analysis to elucidate and characterize for the first time the types of adaptation responses of arable farmers in southern Romania. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 30 farmers managing 51,500 ha located across the southern lowlands of Romania, selected for their diversity of management approaches. Farmers were asked about experienced climatic disturbances, crop production losses during the most extreme events over the past 5–10 years, and the adaptation measures they implemented over that period of time. In addition, structural characteristics of the farm were recorded. The adaptation measures were classified and mapped on the efficiency, substitution, and redesign gradient used to classify sustainability stages. Results revealed three archetypes of adaptation, consisting of measures at field and farm level ranging from predominantly efficiency-enhancing ones (e.g., crop choice and management and risk insurance) to complete farm redesign involving agrotechnical and financial management changes. Structural farm characteristics did not explain differences between farms in their association with one of the archetypes. Our approach and results show for the first time both the need for strengthening farmer-level support in one of Europe’s key food production areas and the lessons that can be drawn from the outlier adaptation examples. Current European and national policies offer opportunities for farmer organizations in Romania to make these conclusions actionable. EEA Bariloche Fil: Necula, Cristiana. Wageningen University & Research. Farming Systems Ecology Group; Países Bajos Fil: Rossing, Walter A.H. Wageningen University and Research. Farming Systems Ecology Group; Países Bajos. Fil: Easdale, Marcos Horacio. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Bariloche. Instituto de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias Bariloche; Argentina Fil: Easdale, Marcos Horacio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias Bariloche; Argentina 2024-07-19T11:32:20Z 2024-07-19T11:32:20Z 2024-07 info:ar-repo/semantics/artículo info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12123/18575 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13593-024-00970-8 1774-0746 1773-0155 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-024-00970-8 eng info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) application/pdf Romania .......... (nation) (World, Europe) 1000091 Springer Agronomy for Sustainable Development 44 : article number 37. (July 2024)
spellingShingle Agroecología
Agroecology
Agricultor
Farmers
Cambio Climático
Climate Change
Variabilidad del Clima
Climate Variability
Rumanía
Romania
Necula, Cristiana
Rossing, Walter A.H.
Easdale, Marcos Horacio
Archetypes of climate change adaptation among large-scale arable farmers in southern Romania
title Archetypes of climate change adaptation among large-scale arable farmers in southern Romania
title_full Archetypes of climate change adaptation among large-scale arable farmers in southern Romania
title_fullStr Archetypes of climate change adaptation among large-scale arable farmers in southern Romania
title_full_unstemmed Archetypes of climate change adaptation among large-scale arable farmers in southern Romania
title_short Archetypes of climate change adaptation among large-scale arable farmers in southern Romania
title_sort archetypes of climate change adaptation among large scale arable farmers in southern romania
topic Agroecología
Agroecology
Agricultor
Farmers
Cambio Climático
Climate Change
Variabilidad del Clima
Climate Variability
Rumanía
Romania
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12123/18575
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13593-024-00970-8
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-024-00970-8
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