Agricultural Advisors: A Receptive Audience for Weather and Climate Information?Linda Prokopy, Tonya Haigh, Amber Mase, Jim Angel, Chad Hart, Cody Knutson, Maria Lemos, Yun-Jia Lo, Jean McGuire, Lois Morton, Jennifer Perron, Dennis Todey and Melissa Widhalm Staff General Research Papers Archive from Iowa State University, Department of Economics Abstract: As the climate in the Midwestern United States becomes increasingly variable due to global climate change, it is critical to provide tools to the agricultural community to ensure adaptability and profitability of agricultural cropping systems. When used by farmers and their advisors, agricultural decision support tools can reduce uncertainty and risks in the planning, operation, and management decisions of the farm enterprise. Agricultural advisors have historically played a key role in providing information and guidance in these decisions. However, little is known about what these advisors know or think about weather and climate information and their willingness to incorporate this type of information into their advice to farmers. In this exploratory study, a diverse set of professionals who advise corn growers, including government, non-profit, for-profit and Extension personnel, were surveyed in four states in the Midwestern Corn Belt. Results from the survey indicate that advisors are more influenced by current weather conditions and 1-7 day forecasts than longer term climate outlooks. Advisors predominantly consider historical weather trends and/or forecasts in their advice to farmers on short-term operational decisions versus on longer-term tactical and strategic decisions. The main conclusion from this analysis is that opportunities exist to further engage the advisor community on weather and climate issues and, through them, the farmers who are managing the land. Keywords: climate change; profitability; cropping systems (search for similar items in EconPapers) Published in Weather, Climate, and Society, April 2013, vol. 5 no. 2, pp. 162-167 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:isu:genres:35951 Access Statistics for this paper More papers in Staff General Research Papers Archive from Iowa State University, Department of Economics Iowa State University, Dept. of Economics, 260 Heady Hall, Ames, IA 50011-1070. Contact information at EDIRC. |
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