On farmers’ perceptions of climate change and its nexus with climate data and adaptive capacity. A comprehensive review

Farmers’ perception of climate change is crucial in adaptation intention and process. However, farmers’ perceptions may not be timely, accurate and systematically consistent with the direction and significance of observational records. Although some research compared farmers’ perceptions and climate...

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Main Authors: Sandra Ricart, Andrea Castelletti, Claudio Gandolfi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IOP Publishing 2022-01-01
Series:Environmental Research Letters
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac810f
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author Sandra Ricart
Andrea Castelletti
Claudio Gandolfi
author_facet Sandra Ricart
Andrea Castelletti
Claudio Gandolfi
author_sort Sandra Ricart
collection DOAJ
description Farmers’ perception of climate change is crucial in adaptation intention and process. However, farmers’ perceptions may not be timely, accurate and systematically consistent with the direction and significance of observational records. Although some research compared farmers’ perceptions and climate data, little attention has been paid to comprehensibly analyse both data sources discrepancies based on empirical studies results. By combining bibliometrics and a systematic review approach, we identify which approaches are used to compare perceived and observed data, how both patterns have been mutually evolved, which factors determine their (in)consistency, and if their accordance and robustness affect farmers’ adaptive capacity. We analyse a portfolio of 147 papers collected from the Scopus library catalogue since 2000. The bibliometric analysis was coupled with an exploratory analysis of 98 papers selected from the original portfolio. The literature is extensive, fast-growing, and spans several disciplines. We identify four consolidated research lines: (a) perceived risk and farmers’ adaptive capacity nexus, (b) crop vulnerability due to temperature increase and erratic rainfall patterns, (c) forecasting use and influence in farmers’ decisions, and (d) climate change awareness conditioning farmers’ profiles. Nonetheless, we observe some research gaps: (a) a conceptual mismatch in ‘normal pattern’ or ‘drought’ meaning, (b) poor or limited data from meteorological stations, (c) overlook or oversimplification of local knowledge in describing perception, (d) farmers’ memory weaknesses to keep track of climate alterations, and (e) a geographical dissonance in favour of Global South regions. Our science-metric study also reveals some research questions to be consolidated: Can the perception of extreme events increase climate change awareness? Can greater awareness reduce discrepancy with observed data? How do heuristics and socio-psychological filters influence farmers’ awareness and interpretation of climate data? We suggest putting major efforts into reinforcing these research lines as part of a novel domain-dependent trend to reduce the discrepancy.
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spelling doaj.art-a27d2189acc04af7b44ccd97211511b52023-08-09T15:14:19ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262022-01-0117808300210.1088/1748-9326/ac810fOn farmers’ perceptions of climate change and its nexus with climate data and adaptive capacity. A comprehensive reviewSandra Ricart0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5065-0074Andrea Castelletti1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7923-1498Claudio Gandolfi2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7774-1841Environmental Intelligence for Global Change Lab, Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano , Via Ponzio 34/5, 20133 Milan, ItalyEnvironmental Intelligence for Global Change Lab, Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano , Via Ponzio 34/5, 20133 Milan, ItalyDepartment of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of Milan , Via Celoria 2, 20133 Milan, ItalyFarmers’ perception of climate change is crucial in adaptation intention and process. However, farmers’ perceptions may not be timely, accurate and systematically consistent with the direction and significance of observational records. Although some research compared farmers’ perceptions and climate data, little attention has been paid to comprehensibly analyse both data sources discrepancies based on empirical studies results. By combining bibliometrics and a systematic review approach, we identify which approaches are used to compare perceived and observed data, how both patterns have been mutually evolved, which factors determine their (in)consistency, and if their accordance and robustness affect farmers’ adaptive capacity. We analyse a portfolio of 147 papers collected from the Scopus library catalogue since 2000. The bibliometric analysis was coupled with an exploratory analysis of 98 papers selected from the original portfolio. The literature is extensive, fast-growing, and spans several disciplines. We identify four consolidated research lines: (a) perceived risk and farmers’ adaptive capacity nexus, (b) crop vulnerability due to temperature increase and erratic rainfall patterns, (c) forecasting use and influence in farmers’ decisions, and (d) climate change awareness conditioning farmers’ profiles. Nonetheless, we observe some research gaps: (a) a conceptual mismatch in ‘normal pattern’ or ‘drought’ meaning, (b) poor or limited data from meteorological stations, (c) overlook or oversimplification of local knowledge in describing perception, (d) farmers’ memory weaknesses to keep track of climate alterations, and (e) a geographical dissonance in favour of Global South regions. Our science-metric study also reveals some research questions to be consolidated: Can the perception of extreme events increase climate change awareness? Can greater awareness reduce discrepancy with observed data? How do heuristics and socio-psychological filters influence farmers’ awareness and interpretation of climate data? We suggest putting major efforts into reinforcing these research lines as part of a novel domain-dependent trend to reduce the discrepancy.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac810fclimate changefarmers’ perceptionmeteorological dataadaptive capacitybehaviour
spellingShingle Sandra Ricart
Andrea Castelletti
Claudio Gandolfi
On farmers’ perceptions of climate change and its nexus with climate data and adaptive capacity. A comprehensive review
Environmental Research Letters
climate change
farmers’ perception
meteorological data
adaptive capacity
behaviour
title On farmers’ perceptions of climate change and its nexus with climate data and adaptive capacity. A comprehensive review
title_full On farmers’ perceptions of climate change and its nexus with climate data and adaptive capacity. A comprehensive review
title_fullStr On farmers’ perceptions of climate change and its nexus with climate data and adaptive capacity. A comprehensive review
title_full_unstemmed On farmers’ perceptions of climate change and its nexus with climate data and adaptive capacity. A comprehensive review
title_short On farmers’ perceptions of climate change and its nexus with climate data and adaptive capacity. A comprehensive review
title_sort on farmers perceptions of climate change and its nexus with climate data and adaptive capacity a comprehensive review
topic climate change
farmers’ perception
meteorological data
adaptive capacity
behaviour
url https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac810f
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