Farmers’ perceptions of future risks and opportunities, and their expected future use of climate projections for decision-making

Climate change is a risk to farmers globally. Multi-decadal climate projections are increasingly available for farmers to enable climate risk management. This paper identifies how these projections can support farmers’ understanding of future climate and explores whether farmers expect to use climate services in future decision-making. We examine barriers to the expected use of climate services and discuss how to address them. For this purpose, we use an Australian climate service, My Climate View, to engage with 51 Australian farmers using in-depth semi-structured interviews. Our results suggest four key findings. First, farmers saw benefit in using My Climate View. However, no clear relationships between risk perceptions and the expected use of climate services was found. Second, climate services can be used in various ways, including making actionable decisions and better understanding future climate trends. Third, increasing scientific transparency and communicating uncertainties associated with climate models and projections can build farmers’ confidence in climate services. Finally, working with local champions and advisors to provide evidence of use cases, and embedding climate information in business decision making and succession planning, can improve the adoption of climate services.