Farmers’ decision to participate in agri-environmental measures for the conservation of extensive grasslands in the Haloze region

Abstract

Understanding the factors that influence farmers’ decisions to participate in agri-environmental measures (AEMs) is crucial to meeting the environmental goals of agricultural policy. We investigated the factors of farmers’ involvement in AEM aimed at maintaining extensive grassland use by analysing data from a survey of 258 farms and 40 interviews with farmers in the Haloze region. Results show that, in addition to adequate payment, farmers’ attitudes towards grassland conservation and their self-identity are also important factors in increasing their willingness to join AEMs. A production-oriented view of farming prevailed among the interviewed farmers, with grassland conservation being important to them primarily in terms of maintaining a tidy landscape and achieving production and economic goals, while biodiversity conservation was often of negligible importance. The results indicate the educational and extension need in terms of farmers’ understanding of the relationship between agriculture and nature conservation. The latter can be encouraged by strengthening advisory support and the use of locally and practically oriented knowledge transfer approaches, as well as by introducing result-based AEMs.

Keywords

• agri-environmental schemes
• farmers’ participation
• decision-making process
• social capital
• self-identity
• biodiversity