A farmer's view on climate change in the North German Plain

Abstract

Predicted climate change will affect grassland farming in Europe in various ways. Likely effects depend on current climate, soil conditions and farm management. A range of adaptation measures to the effects of climate change has been identified. However, an effective response to these challenges would include a requirement that the farmers were both knowledgeable about, and also accepted the idea of, climate change. Therefore, we need to know how grassland farmers perceive and anticipate postulated future climate change and whether their attitude is influenced by factors like, among others, region, farm size and sociocultural background. To answer these questions, we conducted a survey with extensive onfarm interviews (n = 82) in four distinctive regions of the North German Plain on a gradient from more maritime to less-favoured areas with more continental weather. We found that with more continental climate and less rainfall and with increasing farm size, grassland farmers were more aware of the implications of climate change. However, some aspects of the farmers’ socio-cultural background seemed to determine their views on climate change more strongly. More traditional and conservative farmers tended to be more critical of the idea of climate change compared to their future-oriented colleagues.