Lecture on Sales channel matters in farmers’ adaptation to climate change, but why?

October 9, 2015 | 14:00 h - 15:00 h

We cordially invite you to a public lecture by <link http: ipads.a.u-tokyo.ac.jp staff>Prof. Kazuhiko Kobayashi, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo,

on "Sales channel matters in farmers’ adaptation to climate change, but why?"

Date:  Friday, October 9, 2015, 2:00-3:00 p.m.

Venue: ZEF, right conference room

Abstract:

Our case studies have identified the sales channel as a major determinant of farmers’ adaptation to climate change. In a study on apple growers in Nagano, Japan, Fujisawa & Kobayashi (2011) identified two types of farmers, of which the farmers ship their product mostly via the farmers’ coop or its equivalent to the mass market (M-type). The other type of farmers sell their product directly to the consumers (D-type). In response to the rising air temperature and delaying maturity, the M-type farmers took means to accelerate the coloring of fruits, whereas the D-type of farmers did not make the color-enhancement but just delayed the harvest. The distinction in the farmers’ responses to the climate change was attributed to the difference in the sales channel.

In another study, Fujisawa & Kobayashi (2013) investigated the process where peach was newly adopted among apple growers in Kazuno, a location further north than Nagano in Japan. Peach, a species better suited to warmer climate than apple, was first introduced by four farmers in early 1990’s, and gradually adopted by other farmers in Kazuno. The adoption was enhanced greatly, when the farmers’ coop and the local government began financial and technical supports for the apple farmers to start growing peach. It was found that the first four farmers were D-type, whereas the later adopters of peach production were M-type.

The case studies on Japanese apple growers along with a study on apple growers in South Africa were synthesized by Fujisawa et al. (2015), who found that D-type farmers tend to make bottom-up adaptations that are autonomous and often proactive, whereas the M-type farmers, including those in South Africa, tend to accept top-down planned adaptations that are reactive and often remedial to the ongoing climate change impacts.

According to the model of diffusion of innovations (Rogers, 2003), the M-type farmers’ adaptation can be viewed as a traditional system, where the technical fixes to the emerging problems are designed by experts and adopted by farmers. The adaptation by D-type farmers would then be viewed as the decentralized system, where the innovation bubbles up from the farmers and diffused among their peers. Moreover, the case of Kazuno indicates the possibility of timely combining the two systems for a greater success.

A question remains, then. Why the sales channel matters in the farmers’ adaptation? I hope to address this question along with the audience.