German Farmers' Perception of Climate Change Effects and Determinants Influencing Their Climate Awareness

This paper focuses on the attitude of German farmers towards climate change effects and aims to identify determinants affecting their perception of weather conditions. For this purpose, descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression approaches were applied. Data was collected using a questionnaire survey, which was conducted in spring 2013 among 173 German farmers in the two regions Swabian Alb and Kraichgau. The analyses revealed that four main factors influence the perception of weather variability. In particular, respondents’ age, the region where the farm is located, the share of agricultural income and the farm profit are statistically significantly related with the degree of support for the respective weather statements. The findings further indicated age of farmer, location of the farm, method of production and farm size as significant predictors concerning the farm leader’s perception of climate change consequences. As descriptive statistics revealed, the majority of farmers perceive for their location a change in weather conditions, an increase in weather variability as well as decreasing predictability of weather and expect consequences for their farming activities due to these developments.