Joe Morris

Promoting farmer uptake of agri-environment schemes: the Countryside Stewardship arable options scheme.

Abstract The theory of diffusion and adoption of innovation was used to gain an understanding of farmer attitude towards and willingness to participate in the Arable Field Margins option of the Countryside Stewardship Scheme, and to assess the effectiveness of actions to promote participation amongst arable farmers. Informal interviews, followed up by a telephone survey, confirmed that for CS arable options to be attractive, they must be perceived to be practical, offer adequate environmental and financial reward, and fit in with a predominantly commercial farm business purpose. Appropriate promotional pathways were identified for each stage of the adoption process to encourage farmer participation, emphasising the importance of change agents and communications channels.

Consumer perception of food risk in chicken meat

Growing concerns about risks to public health have heightened consumer awareness of safety in food consumption. Understanding consumer perception of risk and impact on purchase behaviour is a key issue for the mutual benefit of both consumers and food industry. An exploratory study in the form of personal interviews was carried out to investigate the perceived main food risks in chicken meat product, together with the components of perceived loss and risk reducing strategies. The results suggested the importance of lifestyle loss as a separate factor along with health, financial, time, and product performance loss. Risk reducing strategies adopted by consumers were matched with the marketing strategies used by the food industry, such as product quality assurance, product information and pricing. Consumers felt able to reduce exposure to food safety risk by personal control in the post‐purchase handling and preparation of chicken meat.

Food safety: building consumer trust in livestock farmers for potential purchase behaviour

Purpose – Food safety is an important issue facing consumers, the food industry and the government. Since consumers cannot themselves easily assess food safety risks, their perception of food safety is, in part, a matter of trust in the food chain. This study seeks to focus on livestock farmers and to investigate the causal relationship between the factors that determine consumer trust, regarding food safety and in turn their purchase likelihood.Design/methodology/approach – By integrating theories developed in several disciplines, six factors, namely: providing information, competence, integrity, benevolence, credibility, and reliability were adopted for this study. The conceptual model was tested with a sample of 194 individuals in the form of a structural equation model using LISREL 8.30.Findings – The research confirms that livestock farmers could draw benefit from strategies to increase their trustworthiness through provision of information, show their benevolence and integrity to consumers, and in t...

Identifying future risks to UK agricultural crop production: putting climate change in context.

Internationally, agriculture is widely regarded as one of the sectors at most risk from a changing climate. This is due to the impact of increased temperatures, reduced rainfall and increased frequency of extreme events, not only in the tropics but also in temperate environments. In the UK, growers also face a range of ‘non-climate’ risks, which, it is often argued, present a potentially greater and more immediate threat to sustainable food production than climate change. This paper highlights the climate and non-climate impacts on crop production, the adaptation options and the institutional and regulatory barriers to their uptake by farmers. It concludes that there are likely to be both positive impacts (for example, yield gains) and negative impacts (for example, increased water stress). Either way, there will be a need for new investments in adaptive management and technology, including new collaborations between the public and private sectors, to enable UK agriculture to respond to the potential effects of climate change.

The effects of risk-reducing strategies on consumer perceived risk and on purchase likelihood: A modelling approach

Purpose – Consumer perception of risk and its impacts on purchasing behaviour are critical aspects of food safety. Consumer risk management strategies influence, and respond to, the risk management strategies adopted by the food industry. This research, using poultry product as the focus, aims to identify the consumer risk-reducing strategies and their impact on perception of food safety-related risk and then on purchase behaviour. Design/methodology/approach – By adopting a quantitative research paradigm with a quota sample of 200 respondents, a Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) model was built to assess the direct and indirect effects of strategies taken by consumers to reduce perceived risk and the consequences for purchase likelihood, utilising LISREL 8.30. Findings – The research reveals brand, information and quality assurance as influential risk-reducing strategies to reduce consumer perception of food safety risk and subsequently to facilitate purchase likelihood during a period concerned about ...

Synergies and trade-offs in the management of lowland rural floodplains: an ecosystem services approach

Abstract Priorities for the management of lowland rural floodplains in many parts of Europe have changed from a focus on agricultural production towards multi-functional landscapes that provide a range of environmental, social and economic benefits to society. This paper uses an ecosystem services framework to explore alternative management scenarios with different objectives (production, biodiversity, floodwater storage, agri-environment and income) for two rural floodplains in England. Each scenario featured different types of land cover and hydrological management. The results revealed the key role of the hydrological regime in shaping ecosystem service provision in floodplains. Both conflicts and synergies were apparent. Scenarios with deep water tables and low flood frequencies had high scores for agricultural production and flood storage capacity, but low scores for environmental outcomes. Scenarios with shallow water tables and frequent flooding showed high scores for environmental and cultural outcomes, but at the cost of a reduced flood storage capacity and increased flood risk. The scope for multiple benefits has implications for the realignment of policies to realize extra value from floodplain ecosystems. Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz; Guest editor M.C. Acreman Citation Rouquette, J.R., Posthumus, H., Morris, J., Hess, T.M., Dawson, Q.L. and Gowing, D.J.G., 2011. Synergies and trade-offs in the management of lowland rural floodplains: an ecosystem services approach. Hydrological Sciences Journal 56 (8), 1566–1581.

A framework for integrating flood defence and biodiversity in washlands in England

Abstract Concerns about increased flood risk and loss of biodiversity in lowland areas, coupled with changing priorities in the countryside have drawn attention to the potential contribution that managed washlands can make to improved flood management, habitats and wildlife. Following a review of research literature, a survey of flood managers and conservation officers, and an evaluation of selected case sites in England, a framework to help integrate potential flood management and biodiversity opportunities was constructed. This framework consists of three components, namely: a Hydraulic classification which categorises washlands according to degree of hydraulic control; a Habitat classification which captures attributes of washland hydrology that define the type of existing or potential habitats; and, a Menu of Interventions to “engineer” or manage particular flooding and soil wetness regimes and thereby better exploit habitat potential. Washlands were also categorised by main type of benefit whether this is flood management, conservation, or in the case of integrated washland, a balance of the two. The advantages of alternative administrative and funding arrangements for washlands, whether land acquisition or annual payment to existing land owners, were also explored. It was concluded that the classification of washland flooding and water level regimes can help to define habitat potential. It can also help to guide hydraulic engineering and management actions that can be taken to realise this potential. Although there is potential synergy between flooding and biodiversity under some flood regimes, biodiversity benefits mainly depend on the management of water regimes following flood events. There is a clear need to “join up” hitherto fragmented policy and funding mechanisms in order to exploit the potential for washlands to simultaneously deliver flood management and biodiversity benefits.

The importance of landscape characteristics for the delivery of cultural ecosystem services

The importance of Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) to human wellbeing is widely recognised. However, quantifying these non-material benefits is challenging and consequently they are often not assessed. Mapping approaches are increasingly being used to understand the spatial distribution of different CES and how this relates to landscape characteristics. This study uses an online Public Participation Geographic Information System (PPGIS) to elicit information on outdoor locations important to respondents in Wiltshire, a dynamic lowland landscape in southern England. We analysed these locations in a GIS with spatial datasets representing potential influential factors, including protected areas, land use, landform, and accessibility. We assess these characteristics at different spatial and visual scales for different types of cultural engagement. We find that areas that are accessible, near to urban centres, with larger views, and a high diversity of protected habitats, are important for the delivery of CES. Other characteristics including a larger area of woodland and the presence of sites of historic interest in the surrounding landscape were also influential. These findings have implications for land-use planning and the management of ecosystems, by demonstrating the benefits of high quality ecological sites near to towns. The importance of maintaining and restoring landscape features, such as woodlands, to enhance the delivery of CES were also highlighted.

Empirical Test of an Agricultural Landscape Model: The Importance of Farmer Preference for Risk Aversion and Crop Complexity

Developing models to predict the effects of social and economic change on agricultural landscapes is an important challenge. Model development often involves making decisions about which aspects of the system require detailed description and which are reasonably insensitive to the assumptions. However, important components of the system are often left out because parameter estimates are unavailable. In particular, measurements of the relative influence of different objectives, such as risk, environmental management, on farmer decision making, have proven difficult to quantify. We describe a model that can make predictions of land use on the basis of profit alone or with the inclusion of explicit additional objectives. Importantly, our model is specifically designed to use parameter estimates for additional objectives obtained via farmer interviews. By statistically comparing the outputs of this model with a large farm-level land-use data set, we show that cropping patterns in the United Kingdom contain a significant contribution from farmer’s preference for objectives other than profit. In particular, we found that risk aversion had an effect on the accuracy of model predictions, whereas preference for a particular number of crops grown was less important. While nonprofit objectives have frequently been identified as factors in farmers’ decision making, our results take this analysis further by demonstrating the relationship between these preferences and actual cropping patterns.

A decision support tool for Public Rights of Way officers based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process

Local Government Authorities (LGA) in England and Wales have statutory responsibility for the maintenance of Public Rights of Way (PROW), such as pathways and byways open to non-motorised traffic. The departments responsible have to compete for budgets and justify their expenditure in terms of councils’ priorities, such as well-being and environment. A need was identified for a simple decision support tool to provide a consistent and transparent framework for assessing the range of possible social and economic benefits from expenditure on PROW. The tool uses the Analytic Hierarchy Process to elicit weights forming the links from path attributes to users and usage to benefits, with a final stage to combine the benefits according to LGA priorities. It was successfully tested through case studies, where improving signage was generally found to be the most cost effective option, giving moderate benefits at low cost, whereas improving the physical conditions of the surface gave greater benefits at relatively high cost.