Project Outline

Project Title: Farmer Perceptions to Climate Change in Ireland.

Project Goal: The primary goal of the thesis is to understand Irish farmers’ perceptions of climate change in Ireland and how it relates to their farm.

Objectives:

To review the literature on farmers attitudes internationally and in Ireland to climate change.
To undertake primary research to understand farmers attitudes to climate change.
To understand farmers’ attitudes towards Agri-environmental schemes with a particular emphasis on soil and water quality.
To provide overall conclusions and recommendations for future research in this area.

Backround to the Project:

This project is an Interreg project on Climate Adaption that aims to identify effective policy levers to drive adaption among European Farmer. The project is called Risk Aqua soil and has a number of parters including:

Association Climatologique de la Moyenne-Garonne et du Sud-Ouest, Chambre d’Agriculture de la Dordogne, Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Agencia de Medio Ambiente y Agua de Andalucía, Westcountry Rivers Trust, ADRAVE – Agência de Desenvolvimento Regional do Vale do Ave, National University of Ireland, Galway, Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente, Conseil Régional Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Rivers Trust, Syndicat Mixte Ouvert EPIDROPT, Teagasc –Agriculture and Food Development Authority, Caja Mar Caja Rural, Agencia Estatal de Meteorología

The Focus of my work will be on attitudes and intentions of Farmers in the West of Ireland. Within this I will be specifically looking at soil and water quality.

For the Project I will be running qualitative and quantatitive surveys amoung farmers at the Sheep farm to fork national event being held in Teagasc Athenry. My stand will be located in the Environmental tent where I am hoping to talk with some farmers and get them to fill out a short questionnaire.