To what extent are farmers willing to adapt to climate change? An assessment of agricultural best management practices adoption

Aim of study: Address farmers’ preferences for the adoption of agricultural best management practices in a climate change context and estimate their willingness to accept values for these practices. Area of study: Region of Murcia (SE Spain). Material and Methods: The method employed is a discrete choice experiment, whose attributes are the agricultural best management practices for climate change adaptation [regulated deficit irrigation, crop diversification, organic fertilisation, crop residues management, narrowing farmland by 5%, perimeter hedgerows, biological control, enabling eco-tourism activities] and a subsidy to incentivise their adoption. Data were collected for a sample of 250 farmers and analysed by a mixed logit model. Main results: Narrowing farmland by 5%, biological control and the establishment of perimeter hedgerows were the practices generating the greatest values of disutility, and therefore they displayed higher willingness to accept values, ranging from 320 to 410 €/ha/year. In contrast, organic fertilisation and crop residues management were the practices with lowest levels of disutility, and so demanding lower compensatory payments to engage farmers to adopt, which rounded 110 €/ha/year, respectively. Preference heterogeneity was also assessed, revealing that the likelihood of adopting best management practices was determined by farm characteristics (farm size, crop type and farming system) and farmer factors (educational level). Research highlights: Farmers are willing to adopt agricultural best management practices for climate change adaption if they are associated to properly designed incentives.