Small scale farmers and climate change: Opportunities and barriers to community engagement Burbi, Baines and Conway Royal Agricultural University, Cirencester

What Farmers Are Expected To Do Produces food, feed, fuel and fiber Safeguard the environment Maintain biodiversity Provide broad range of ecosystem services Reduce waste, pollution and greenhouse gas emissions Maintain business productivity and competitiveness

What Researchers Can Do Assess the feasibility of practical application of mitigation options in the UK. Provide a free and easy-to-use decision support tool for farmers and land managers, in the form of a decision tree. Propose mitigation options to farmers and land managers based not only on environmental impacts, but also considering their socio-economic impact on business (options, feasibility, sustainability, farmers’ engagement)

Translational Research Methods 14 small-scale livestock farmers; farm visits, interviews, focus group meetings Decision Support Tool to provide farm management practices assessment and guidelines to reduce GHG. Feedback on farmers’ attitudes and perceptions of climate change mitigation.

Translational Research Barriers to adaption of GHG mitigation measures by farmers Financial burden of GHG emission reduction measures Trust in official reports, government Support in integrating environmental schemes and GHG emissions reduction Bureaucracy linked to obtaining grants Trust in scientific basis of recommendations Risk associated with change of viable business model for something new and unknown

Translational Research What helps small scale farmers make good decisions: Trust in source of recommendations (i.e. the individual) Interest in conservation and environmental matters Trust in source of recommendations (i.e. the organization) User-friendliness of assessment tools Community support and/or engagement