Are we taking farmers seriously? A review of the literature on farmer perceptions and climate change, 2007–2018

Bernard Soubry, Kate Sherren, Thomas F. Thornton

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

83 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

While there is broad agreement in theory that farmers' expertise should be integrated into discussions of land management and climate change adaptation in the food system, it is unknown how much research practice has integrated these recommendations. To gauge the state of the field, we reviewed and coded a sample set of papers (n = 105) concerning farmers' perceptions of climate change. Crosstabulation analysis reveals that: 1) researching farmer “perception” of climate change seems to be more frequent in the Global South, as opposed to the North, where other terms are used; 2) farmers are rarely described within their social-ecological contexts, and often simply have their observations segmented and assessed for verification against historical data or quantitative measurements; and 3) the broader dynamics of research practice may perpetuate extractive and colonial patterns of exchange between the Global North and South. We find that farmers from the Global South are rarely described, but often evaluated in their perceptions. We conclude that, with some exceptions, the field does not substantively embrace farmers’ perceptions as a contribution to adaptation discourse. We posit that the lack of in-depth qualitative methods in our sample may be correlated with the perception of farmers as passive and vulnerable, rather than viably adapting.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)210-222
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of Rural Studies
Volume74
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Thanks to the team at Community Forests International, which provided essential desk and thinking space in the early days of this analysis. Thanks also to the anonymous reviewers whose insights greatly helped the paper in its first drafts. [BS] is supported by the Rhodes Trust (UK) and the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation (Canada).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

  • Geography, Planning and Development
  • Development
  • Sociology and Political Science

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