Identifying the signals that influence farmers and growers when implementing environmental practice change
Project Details Ngā taipitopito
Collaborators Ngā haumi
AgFirst | Massey University | Primary Insight | Scarlatti
Many people and organisations are trying to encourage on-farm practice change to improve environmental sustainability, while maintaining or improving productivity and profitability. They are providing farmers with a lot of information, resources, and expertise about potential farm system changes, land use change, changes in management practices, and the use of new technologies.
This advice interacts with other ‘signals’ that influence on-farm decisions, such as information from the natural environment, culture and society, farm activities, industry group directives, markets and incentive schemes, regulations, prices, peers, and research.
For example, a farmer might receive information from their catchment group about invertebrates and sediment load. The action taken in response to this signal could range from ignoring it, to a practice change on-farm to reduce the amount of sediment going into the catchment.
This research project will identify the key signals that lead to a constructive response from land stewards that moves towards more resilient, healthy, and prosperous land use. It will also investigate how this information about signals can be used by those working with farmers and growers, to increase the likelihood of bringing about positive change.