Behavioral economic aspects of agricultural climate change mitigation
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural production (mainly methane and nitrous oxide) is crucial for achieving international mitigation targets. Many studies have shown that agriculture indeed has large potential for effective emissions reduction. However, quite some uncertainty remains as to the exact reduction potential of single mitigation measures in crop production and livestock farming. This is partly due to the fact that agriculture is dependent on natural conditions and there can be many (sometimes not foreseeable) interactions within the ecosystems involved. Some mitigation measures can also lead to a conflict of different policy goals, e.g. in terms of other pollutants or animal welfare. Moreover, there is large heterogeneity of mitigation costs and reduction potential of single farms and consequently of farmers’ adoption of measures. Here is where my doctoral thesis in the Agricultural Economics and Policy Group (AECP) at ETH Zurich comes in.
Inspiration by pioneer farmers
Inspired by the project “AgroCO2ncept Flaachtal”, in which a group of farmers in the northern part of Canton Zurich have committed to a collective mitigation target of minus 20% on and across their farms, we wanted to know what drives farmers to voluntarily implement mitigation measures. To this end, we conducted a survey in 2019 and sent the questionnaire to almost 400 farmers in the region of AgroCO2ncept called Zürcher Weinland. We asked farmers which out of thirteen mitigation measures they adopted. The measures were previously chosen based on assumed mitigation potential, suitability, and relevance within the Swiss context. Among them were for example an increased lactation number of dairy cows, feed additives to reduce methane from the digestive tract of ruminants, covering the slurry storage or special fertilizer application techniques. We also asked farmers about their climate change concerns and perceptions, their personal values and goals, their risk preferences and their perceived self-efficacy.
The strength of believing in oneself
The latter describes the belief in one’s own capabilities to solve a certain problem. In our analysis of the collected data, it became clear that it is exactly this – a strong belief that one can make a difference – which motivates farmers to actually mitigate greenhouse gas emissions on their farms. In other words, the first part of my doctoral thesis indicates that even when confronted with overwhelming global problems such as climate change, the belief in oneself and one’s capabilities are able to overcome resignation and can eventually encourage action (find the published article here). In a way, I find this result quite encouraging – thinking positive of our own abilities to improve things can actually lead us to take better, more sustainable decisions. And if this is even true for acting against global warming, how powerful could it potentially be in our day-to-day decisions in all areas of the mundane life?
The project AgroCO2ncept Flaachtal aims to reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. Among the adopted mitigation measures are for example emissions reducing fertilizer application or collective use of machines (Photo: Sofies Emac AG).
Knowledgeable peers can encourage mitigation
However, not only strong beliefs in oneself affect farmers’ behavior, also believing in specific skills and knowledge of others seems to be positively associated with uptake of mitigation measures. This is what the second part of my thesis focuses on. To learn more about the influence of farmers’ peers and neighbors on their mitigation adoption, we went to visit over 50 farmers in the same region and interviewed them about their social relations with respect to exchange about climate change mitigation. Most of the interviewees had also participated in the previous survey. The results of our subsequent network analysis reveal: a farmer who believes that his or her social contacts know a lot about climate change mitigation is more likely to adopt mitigation measures on the farm. What was somewhat surprising to us is, that knowledge of one’s peers seems to be more important than their actual mitigation behavior. However, given that practical mitigation of greenhouse gases is something most farmers still have no experience in, learning about it from knowledgeable others can become disproportionately important.
Now that we looked at some important behavioral components of farmers’ mitigation adoption, the next step will be to include the more economic dimension, i.e. the costs of greenhouse gas reduction on the farm. Accounting for the large heterogeneity of farms, we use an agent-based model approach to simulate which measures would be implemented given associated changes in profit and overall emissions of a farm. Again, the social network will play a crucial role as we want to know whether knowledge exchange could help to achieve an economically optimal level of on-farm mitigation. This is still work in progress and I am curious to see the results of our simulations in the coming months.
Presentation at virtual conference
I had the opportunity to present the results of our first study at the Congress of the European Association of Agricultural Economics, which took place virtually due to the pandemic. This was the first international conference I contributed during my PhD, and - even though we could unfortunately not meet in person - it was quite inspiring to connect, listen to so many others’ works and get some valuable feedback. The money of the overall poster prize I had been awarded with at the World Food System Center Research Symposium 2019 went into the conference fees.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Cordelia Kreft is currently doing her PhD in the Agricultural Economics and Policy Group (AECP) at ETH Zurich. She studied agricultural sciences at ETH and received her Master’s degree in 2013. Until 2016, she worked in the international trade section of the Swiss Federal Office for Agriculture in Bern and was involved in negotiations within WTO as well as bilateral free-trade agreements. Before turning back to ETH to start her PhD in 2018, she studied journalism at the Swiss journalism school in Lucerne (MAZ) and wrote for several consumer related magazines in Zurich.