Processes of adaptation in farm decision-making models. A review

Abstract

Agricultural production systems should evolve fast to cope with risks induced by climate change. Farmers should adapt their management strategies to stay competitive and satisfy the societal demand for sustainable food systems. It is therefore important to understand the decision-making processes used by farmers for adaptation. Processes of adaptation are in particular addressed by bio-economic and bio-decision models. Here, we review bio-economic and bio-decision models, in which strategic and tactical decisions are included in dynamic adaptive and expectation-based processes, in 40 literature articles. The major points are: adaptability, flexibility, and dynamic processes are common ways to characterize farmers' decisionmaking. Adaptation is either a reactive or a proactive process depending on farmer flexibility and expectation capabilities. Various modeling methods are used to model decision stages in time and space, and some methods can be combined to represent a sequential decision-making process.

A new framework to analyse workforce contribution to Australian cotton farm adaptability

“…In this paper, the term 'farm workforce' relates to all these human resource categories reflecting broader changes in the social organisation of farming in developed countries (Lobley and Potter 2004;Santhanam-Martin and Nettle 2015). In a recent review of processes of adaptation within farm decision-making models, workforce resource decisions were absent from models relating to converting cash crops to silage for livestock feed in drought conditions (Robert et al 2016). In a study of peanut growers making transformational changes in Australia, Marshall et al (2014) discussed farmers' capacity to be employed outside the farm as an adaptation strategy, but did not consider the farm workforce decisions and implications associated with other adaptation strategies, such as changing farm location or the difficulties accessing a workforce in a more remote location (McKenzie 2011).…”

“…This could be due to the general difficulty in measuring human resources and the nature of the workplace environment, such as job quality or work conditions (Harrison and Getz 2015), the difficulty in modelling workforce dynamics in farming systems (Robert et al 2016) or in incorporating the influence of external factors, such as labour market conditions, and the entry or exit of people in farming (Santhanam-Martin and Nettle 2014). However, on further analysis, it would appear that the farm workforce is examined only as a cost (e.g.…”

A revised trait‐based framework for agroecosystems including decision rules

“…Decision rules can be conceptually grouped into two categories, depending on the time‐scale at which they operate: “strategic decisions” operate at a year or several year time‐scale, while “tactical decisions” operate at shorter time‐scales (season/week/day) (e.g. Cittadini, Lubbers, de Ridder, van Keulen, & Claassen, ; Le Gal, Dugue, Faure, & Novak, ; Ripoche et al., ; Robert et al., ). Strategic decisions correspond to farmer's objectives (e.g.…”

“…Farmer's decision-making processes are complex and have been extensively studied for the last 30 years (Aubry & Michel-Dounias, 2006;Aubry et al, 1998;Cerf & Sébilllote, 1988;Darré, Mathieu & Lasseur, 2007;Duru, Papy, & Soler, 1988;Le Gal et al, 2010;Papy, 2001;Robert et al, 2016;Sébilllote & Soler, 1990). In the context of the framework proposed here, we grouped decision-making drivers into five groups, described below.…”

“…Complex processes underlie farmer's decision-making. Decision rules result from production and service delivery objectives, biophysical constraints, market demand and economic, social and cultural references and constraints related to the farmer's knowledge (Aubry, Papy, & Capillon, 1998;Darré, Mathieu & Lasseur 2007;Le Gal et al, 2010;Robert, Thomas, & Bergez, 2016;Sébilllote & Soler, 1990). Socioeconomic drivers of decision-making will not be further detailed in this article.…”