Livestock farmers have expressed 'a significant unwillingness' to adopt greenhouse gas mitigation measures, a new study has suggested.
Various barriers to adoption were identified by researchers, including inflexible land contracts, cost and poor awareness of mitigation measures.
Non-availability of markets for bioenergy crops and scepticism about the future impacts were also identified, the Rothamsted survey of 200 farmers shows.
The results consistently showed that age, labour availability and farm sector influence the likely adoption of mitigation measures.
In particular, livestock grazing farmers showed an unwillingness to adopt these best practices, the agricultural research institution said.
Research lead Dr Asma Jebari said the rapid uptake of greenhouse gas mitigation measures was central to reducing agricultural and land use emissions and meeting the UK net zero policy.
She said: “The socioeconomic challenges and barriers to uptake are poorly understood, suggesting that existing policies and structures are unlikely to deliver effective outcomes.”
Some farmers in the survey thought that those proposing mitigation measures and emission reduction targets seemed to have not considered how they might impact profitability.
In the case of reducing stocking density, many were of the opinion that, although reducing this in grassland would likely also reduce emissions, it would negatively affect their farm’s efficiency and profitability and result in poor performance of grassland as a result of under-grazing.
“If I lose one [animal], I reduce my income,” said one farmer. "Reducing organic stocking rates would have no effect on decreasing carbon. In fact, it would reduce carbon sequestration in my soil,” said another.
The study also highlighted problems of limited farm resources. Shortage of agricultural labour, for instance, is an ongoing challenge in the UK and this may affect farmers’ ability to implement more innovative practices.
Dr Jebari said the research showed a clear need for more flexible land contracts, as this was central to the uptake of certain structural measures such as agroforestry and bioenergy crops.
"This also extends to more cost-intensive approaches, such as the use of anaerobic digesters and long-term soil and organic amendments, which require long-term land contracts and flexibility in land use.”
This research further underscored a general poor awareness and knowledge of GHG mitigation measures, including their impact on business-as-usual farming operations. However, responses were mixed.
Some farmers were fully aware of the issues and were already transitioning land use to reduce GHGs. Other respondents stated very limited awareness.
Dr Jebari concluded: “There is a need to promote farm-level awareness and on-farm demonstrations of the various mitigation measures on offer to improve adoption among farmers.
"In addition, cost of uptake is a critical barrier, and there is much uncertainty about the likely outcomes of new technologies and interventions.
"Policy innovation could help in varying ways; such as offsets to support on-farm experimentation. In addition, landscape models to facilitate more cooperation and co-adoption between farms would be very helpful."
