Linking the social, economic, and agroecological: a resilience framework for dairy farming

Abstract

Dairying is uniquely exposed to climatic-and nonclimatic socioeconomic stressors, which have their greatest effects on production and yield. The growing need to consider these and other changes is accelerating efforts aimed at ensuring greater resilience, adaptability, and flexibility within the industry. To gain insight into these dynamics at the farm-level, a resilience-based assessment framework was piloted with three different types of dairy farming systems, following extensive drought on the east coast of the North Island. Using a participatory and bottom-up approach, the framework was used to qualitatively explore the potential significance of varying social, economic, and agroecological attributes between high-input, low-input, and organic systems, and their implications for resilience. The "lock in trap" of highly intensive systems, although profitable in the near term, may be less resilient to climate shocks because these are likely to occur in conjunction with changing market and financial risks. Low-input systems are less dependent, in particular, on fossil fuels and are associated with higher levels of farmer satisfaction and well-being. Organic farming provides ecological benefits, and the financial premium paid to farmers may act as a short-term buffer. The framework provides insight into the current context at the farm level and can draw out individual perspectives on where to target interventions and build resilience. Results demonstrate the potential of in-depth qualitative assessments of resilience, which can usefully complement quantitative metrics. The framework can be used as the basis for further empirical assessment and inform the design of similar approaches for cross-sector comparative analysis, large-N surveys, or modelling. Furthermore, the preliminary characterization of resilient farm-systems has the potential to contribute to broader sustainability frameworks for agriculture and can inform strategic adaptation planning in the face of climate change.

Principles and process for developing participatory adaptation pathways in the primary industries

“…To do so, requires true partnership and collaboration, which does not privilege scientific rather incorporates diverse knowledge (quantitative, qualitative, expert, local, and indigenous), and can adequately account for interacting drivers and feedback mechanisms in coupled socialecological or agroecological, complex adaptive systems (Mistry et al, 2014;Oteros-Rozas et al, 2019;Cradock-Henry, 2021).…”

“…Following are some broad principles based on our synthesis of the literature and the authors' experiences in developing long-term planning for primary industries: Á Economic resilience and sustainability: Adaptation planning may assume that individuals and organizations in primary industries are better able to adapt when they are both sustainable and profitable (Darnhofer, 2021). Maintaining economic resilience while acknowledging and operating within, environmentally or ecologically sustainable limits, therefore is important to achieving lasting social and environmental adaptation (Alston et al, 2018;Cradock-Henry, 2021). Á Readiness not repair: Anticipatory investment in adaptation and mitigation actions rather than repairing damage once the impacts of climate change are experienced will be more effective and efficient.…”

Crop diversification in Idaho’s Magic Valley: the present and the imaginary

“…Second, perceptions of agricultural biodiversity differ between researchers and farmers: researchers may hold idealistic views of the value of diversification, whereby farmers may not view those same processes positively (Maas et al 2021 ). Finally, highly input-intensive production systems, specifically those relying on inputs such as genetically modified crop breeds and glyphosate-based herbicides, are socially, technologically, and economically locked into modern agricultural systems; these lock-ins impede crop diversification at all levels of the value chain and promote short-term profit over long-term resilience (Roesch-McNally et al 2018a ; Meynard et al 2018 ; Cradock-Henry 2021 ; Clapp 2021 ). These factors amount to significant micro- and macroscale barriers to diversification.…”

Advancing Relevance, Credibility, Legitimacy, and Effectiveness as a Heuristic for Local-Parallel Scenarios

“…Extending the basic architecture of the global parallel scenarios developed by the climate change research community to the local level also continues the trend in adaptation research, of researchers working with stakeholders-including communities and regions, policymakers and practitionersto co-produce knowledge (Bremer and Meisch, 2017). Coproduction processes seek to better understand local conditions, assess current and anticipated impacts and implications, and explore adaptation options (Ford et al, 2014;Boon et al, 2019;Cradock-Henry et al, 2020;Hill et al, 2020;Cradock-Henry, 2021). These local-parallel scenarios typically combine elements of top-down and bottom-up data derived from probabilistic or econometric models, or through interviews and other participatory methods, respectively.…”