Adoption of greenhouse gas mitigation in agriculture: an analysis of dairy farmers’ preferences and adoption behaviour

Greenhouse gas mitigation in agriculture implies changes in farm management practices. Knowledge on farmers’ current adoption of management practices aimed at reducing emissions, and their preferences regarding these, is important to inform the development of robust climate change mitigation policies in the agricultural sector. In the context of Scottish dairy farms, this study combines information on current adoption of mitigation practices with preference information based on Best-Worst-Scaling to facilitate the choice of mitigation practices to support via policy mechanisms that encourage and incentivise change. We find that current adoption plays an important role in understanding preference rankings of mitigation practices, and identify promising mitigation practices based on their potential for additional emission reduction, their perceived contribution to the farm’s financial and environmental performance and information on their cost-effectiveness