Climate change consideration in agricultural businesses : a case study of crop farmers’ risk management in the region of Mälardalen
Farmers are constantly exposed to different types of risks within their business. Agricultural production is typically characterized by uncertain outcomes and serious difficulties to measure and estimate the possibility of unfavourable events. Therefore, agriculture belongs to one of the most vulner...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | H3 |
| Language: | Inglés Swedish |
| Published: |
SLU/Dept. of Economics
2019
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| Subjects: |
| _version_ | 1855572500346306560 |
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| author | Engvall, Hanna Nilsson, Cornelia |
| author_browse | Engvall, Hanna Nilsson, Cornelia |
| author_facet | Engvall, Hanna Nilsson, Cornelia |
| author_sort | Engvall, Hanna |
| collection | Epsilon Archive for Student Projects |
| description | Farmers are constantly exposed to different types of risks within their business. Agricultural production is typically characterized by uncertain outcomes and serious difficulties to measure and estimate the possibility of unfavourable events. Therefore, agriculture belongs to one of the most vulnerable sectors of the economy. What poses a major risk to agriculture is climate change, along with the increased frequency of variability and extremes. Various future climate scenarios for Sweden show an expected drier climate that largely affects the environment and thus the crop production.
Previous studies have evaluated and examined farmers’ perception of risk and their risk management strategies, all using a quantitative approach. In this study, a qualitative case study is used to investigate farmers’ considerations of climate change from a risk management perspective. The lenses through which we see and view the world can be described as mental models. Further, a person’s ability to assess a situation relates to experiences that develop a person’s mental models. If a farmer does not have enough information or have insufficiently developed mental models, there may arise difficulties when managing risk. The aim of this thesis is to examine if and how climate change is considered in farmers’ mental models and thus in their risk management.
The results are based on twelve interviews with crop farmers in the region of Mälardalen in middle Sweden. Empirical data has been collected via semi-structured interviews, which have been analysed through thematic coding. An interview guide with open-ended questions based on different themes has been used to get the farmers’ answers and thoughts on the subject. This study can help confirm assumptions of previous studies or to bring new insights into the subject matter. The result of the study indicates that the majority of the farmers do not consider climate change in their mental models and thus not in their risk management. The farmers’ perception of what caused the previous year’s drought is mainly due to the assumption of natural variations rather than climate change |
| format | H3 |
| id | RepoSLU14971 |
| institution | Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences |
| language | Inglés swe |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| publishDateSort | 2019 |
| publisher | SLU/Dept. of Economics |
| publisherStr | SLU/Dept. of Economics |
| record_format | eprints |
| spelling | RepoSLU149712020-06-04T12:17:38Z Climate change consideration in agricultural businesses : a case study of crop farmers’ risk management in the region of Mälardalen Klimatförändringarnas betydelse i lantbruksföretag : en fallstudie om spannmålsodlares riskhantering i Mälardalen Engvall, Hanna Nilsson, Cornelia risk climate change risk management mental models agriculture risk preferences crop farmers Farmers are constantly exposed to different types of risks within their business. Agricultural production is typically characterized by uncertain outcomes and serious difficulties to measure and estimate the possibility of unfavourable events. Therefore, agriculture belongs to one of the most vulnerable sectors of the economy. What poses a major risk to agriculture is climate change, along with the increased frequency of variability and extremes. Various future climate scenarios for Sweden show an expected drier climate that largely affects the environment and thus the crop production. Previous studies have evaluated and examined farmers’ perception of risk and their risk management strategies, all using a quantitative approach. In this study, a qualitative case study is used to investigate farmers’ considerations of climate change from a risk management perspective. The lenses through which we see and view the world can be described as mental models. Further, a person’s ability to assess a situation relates to experiences that develop a person’s mental models. If a farmer does not have enough information or have insufficiently developed mental models, there may arise difficulties when managing risk. The aim of this thesis is to examine if and how climate change is considered in farmers’ mental models and thus in their risk management. The results are based on twelve interviews with crop farmers in the region of Mälardalen in middle Sweden. Empirical data has been collected via semi-structured interviews, which have been analysed through thematic coding. An interview guide with open-ended questions based on different themes has been used to get the farmers’ answers and thoughts on the subject. This study can help confirm assumptions of previous studies or to bring new insights into the subject matter. The result of the study indicates that the majority of the farmers do not consider climate change in their mental models and thus not in their risk management. The farmers’ perception of what caused the previous year’s drought is mainly due to the assumption of natural variations rather than climate change Lantbrukare ingår i en yrkeskategori som konstant utsätts för olika typer av risker. Det som främst kategoriserar lantbruket är osäkra utfall samt svårigheten i att mäta och uppskatta sannolikheten för ogynnsamma händelser. Därför är det en produktionsgren som hör till en av de mest sårbara branscherna i ekonomin. Något som utgör en stor risk för jordbruket är klimatförändringarna tillsammans med ökad frekvens av föränderlighet och extremiteter. Olika framtida klimatscenarier för Sverige visar ett förväntat torrare klimat som i hög grad påverkar miljön och därmed även odlingsklimatet. Under året 2018 upplevde Sverige en varmare vår och sommar än normalt vilket påverkat lantbrukarna på olika sätt. Tidigare studier har genom en kvantitativ ansats utvärderat och undersökt lantbrukares riskuppfattning och deras riskhanteringsstrategier. I denna studie används en kvalitativ fallstudie för att utreda lantbrukares medvetenhet om klimatförändringar ur ett riskhanteringsperspektiv. De linser genom vilka vi ser och betraktar omvärlden kan beskrivas som mentala modeller. En persons förmåga att bedöma en situation relaterar till erfarenheter som utvecklar en persons mentala modeller. Om en lantbrukare inte har tillräckligt utvecklade mentala modeller, alternativt inte har tillräcklig information vad gäller vissa fenomen, kan det uppstå svårigheter vid deras riskhantering. Målet med denna studie är att undersöka om och hur klimatförändringar beaktas i lantbrukares mentala modeller och därmed i deras riskhantering. Resultaten är baserade på tolv intervjuer med spannmålsodlare i regionen Mälardalen i mellersta Sverige. Empiriska data har samlats in via semistrukturerade intervjuer vilka analyserats genom tematisk kodning. En intervjuguide med öppna frågor med utgångspunkt från olika teman har använts för att få lantbrukarnas svar och tankar. Denna studie kan bidra med att bekräfta antaganden tidigare studier gjort eller med att framföra nya insikter inom det aktuella ämnet. Studiens resultat visar att majoriteten av lantbrukarna i intervjun inte är medvetna om klimatförändringarna i sina mentala modeller och i sin riskhantering. Lantbrukarnas uppfattning om vad som orsakat föregående års torka härrör främst till antagandet om naturliga variationer snarare än klimatförändringar. SLU/Dept. of Economics 2019 H3 eng swe https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/14971/ |
| spellingShingle | risk climate change risk management mental models agriculture risk preferences crop farmers Engvall, Hanna Nilsson, Cornelia Climate change consideration in agricultural businesses : a case study of crop farmers’ risk management in the region of Mälardalen |
| title | Climate change consideration in agricultural businesses : a case study of crop farmers’ risk management in the region of Mälardalen |
| title_full | Climate change consideration in agricultural businesses : a case study of crop farmers’ risk management in the region of Mälardalen |
| title_fullStr | Climate change consideration in agricultural businesses : a case study of crop farmers’ risk management in the region of Mälardalen |
| title_full_unstemmed | Climate change consideration in agricultural businesses : a case study of crop farmers’ risk management in the region of Mälardalen |
| title_short | Climate change consideration in agricultural businesses : a case study of crop farmers’ risk management in the region of Mälardalen |
| title_sort | climate change consideration in agricultural businesses : a case study of crop farmers’ risk management in the region of mälardalen |
| topic | risk climate change risk management mental models agriculture risk preferences crop farmers |