The influence of farmer demographic characteristics on environmental behaviour: a review.

Many agricultural studies have observed a relationship between farmer demographic characteristics and environmental behaviours. These relationships are frequently employed in the construction of models, the identification of farmer types, or as part of more descriptive analyses aimed at understanding farmers' environmental behaviour. However, they have also often been found to be inconsistent or contradictory. Although a considerable body of literature has built up around the subject area, research has a tendency to focus on factors such as the direction, strength and consistency of the relationship - leaving the issue of causality largely to speculation. This review addresses this gap by reviewing literature on 4 key demographic variables: age, experience, education, and gender for hypothesised causal links. Overall the review indicates that the issue of causality is a complex one. Inconsistent relationships can be attributed to the presence of multiple causal pathways, the role of scheme factors in determining which pathway is important, inadequately specified measurements of demographic characteristics, and the treatment of non-linear causalities as linear. In addition, all demographic characteristics were perceived to be influenced (to varying extents) by cultural-historical patterns leading to cohort effects or socialised differences in the relationship with environmental behaviour. The paper concludes that more work is required on the issue of causality.

Considering the source: commercialisation and trust in agri-environmental information and advisory services in England.

Recent decades have seen the emergence and increasing prominence of a range of public and private sector providers of agricultural information and advice, owing to state transition away from direct provision of agricultural advisory services. In this paper, we evaluate the establishment of trust in agri-environmental agricultural advisory services in England. Qualitative field research was undertaken with farmers, advisors and promoters engaged in four contrasting agri-environmental advisory initiatives. Findings suggest that longevity and expertise in service provision are more important than the public, private or charitable status of specific advisory service in engendering trust. Consistent funding allocated to well-known agencies or their affiliates is thus more likely influence farmer behaviour in the short term than 'contract' advisory projects awarded to novice service providers. Study participants also put their trust in services that were perceived as 'impartial' or actively 'pro-agriculture'. However, we suggest this 'pro-farmer' orientation can negatively impact on environmental outcomes: advisors may be incentivised to provide information on the easiest access to agri-environmental grants, rather than the actions with the most environmental benefit.

Triggering change: towards a conceptualisation of major change processes in farm decision-making.

In this paper, we present a broad conceptualisation of major change in farm level trajectories. We argue that as a result of path dependency, major changes in farming practice primarily occur in response to 'trigger events', after which farm managers intensify their consideration of the options open to them, and may set a new course of action. In undertaking new actions, the farm system enters a period of instability, while new practices become established. Over time these new practices, if successfully achieving anticipated aims, lead to a further period of path dependency. Recognising and capitalising upon this pattern of events is important for the development of policies oriented towards incentivising major change in farming practices, and may explain why similar projects and/or policies influence some 'types' of farmers differently, and at different times. To illustrate our arguments, examples of this process are described in relation to empirical examples of major on-farm change processes, drawn from qualitative interviews with organic and conventional farmers in two English case study areas.