Factors Influencing Farmers’ Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Behavior: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Researchers increasingly explore farmers’ climate change behavior and the respective influencing factors. This has resulted in extensive, but hitherto unstructured knowledge. We analyze 50 peer-reviewed scientific studies and identify behavioral factors and their influence on farmers’ mitigation and adaptation behavior. Our results show a broad variety of behavioral factors, including cognitive factors which refer to perceptions of a specific risk or behavior, social factors which are influenced by farmers’ interactions with their social peers, and factors which depend on farmers’ personal disposition. Depending on the characteristics of the respective behavioral factor, the implementation of mitigation and adaptation measures is facilitated or impeded.