Farmer’s Adaptive Decision Making in the Willamette Valley, Oregon

Keywords: Agriculture, Climate, Adaptation, Knowledge, Decision-Making, Management
Abstract Type: Poster Abstract

Abstract

This poster analyzes results from a study of farmer soil management practices with a particular focus on factors shaping adaptive decision-making in the Willamette Valley, Oregon. Data is drawn from semi-structured interviews and participatory mapping with 31 farmers between April and August 2022. Recent work has shown that agricultural soil management practices such as tilling levels and cover cropping have direct impacts on both climate change mitigation by sequestering carbon and climate change adaptation by helping farmers respond to more extreme weather conditions under climate change (Bayu 2020; Gosnell et al. 2020; Smith et al. 2020). This project focuses on the barriers to adaptive decisions among U.S. farmers, as well as the key drivers of adaptive choices. It includes an analysis of farmers’ landscape knowledge as demonstrated in the participatory mapping activity and how intimate landscape knowledge intersects with other factors driving farmers’ decisions.