What May Be Needed to Change Farmers Perception of Using Climate Predictions in Farming Decisions Qi S. Hu 1, Lisa M. PytlikZillig 2, Kenneth G. Hubbard 1, Gary D. Lynne 3, and Roger H. Bruning 2 1. School of Natural Resources 1. School of Natural Resources 2. Center for Instructional Innovation, and 2. Center for Instructional Innovation, and Department of Educational Psychology Department of Educational Psychology 3. Department of Agricultural Economics 3. Department of Agricultural Economics University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE

People (and not only managers) trust only their own understanding of their world as the basis of their actions de Geus (1994) (They dont take actions simply because they are told to do so. This is especially true for farmers!)

Farmers are guided by their own subjective knowledge in determining their actions in familiar farming situations.

Largely by overlooking that decision- making nature of farmers, most expert or decision-making support systems designed for knowledge transfer from researchers to farm decision makers have failed! (McCown 2005)

How such subjective knowledge is developed? Through learning: this learning is not from the traditional expert systems that tell farmers the best solution/decision for specific situations (assuming farmers should use the solution for their own good). Rather, this learning is through use of research (weather and climate) products by intermediaries in situations of farming practice.

In these intermediaries farmers generate their own experiences of constructing personal and subjective knowledge that is relevant to actions for the situation.

Thus, effective decision support must facilitate farmers in constructing new knowledge.

A model of such a decision support intervention system to improve farmers understanding and use of climate information and products in farming decisions is developed in this study.

ThinkAboutIt

In this intervention system, farmers are put in practical situations (scenarios) and asked to make decisions. In decision-making, farmers are first making their decisions as they would normally do. Then, they are introduced to various weather and climate products and offered text or audio coaching for understanding and interpreting the products. Furthermore, farmers have access to consultant suggestions as to how the climate information in the products may be used in making the specific farming decision. Farmers can discuss their decision-making with their peers.

Through these intermediary processes farmers will learn specifics of various weather and climate products and their usages to specific farming decisions. This learning will help farmers in constructing their personal and subjective knowledge of the climate products and building experience of using them in farm decision-making.

I will introduce this system and then show its effects from results obtained from two recent focus-groups in south- central Nebraska

The web address:

Summary: A more effective way of transitioning climate information and knowledge to farmers decision- making is by engaging farmers in learning and constructing them personal and subjective knowledge of the climate products and their usages in various situations. With such knowledge, actions will be taken with more use of climate products in farming decisions.