TITLE:
Farmers’ Understandings of Weeds and Herbicide Usage as Environmental Influences on Agricultural Sustainability
AUTHORS:
David Kings
KEYWORDS:
Understandings, Behavioural Approach, Agricultural Weeds, Organic Agriculture, Biodiversity, Agricultural Sustainability
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Environmental Protection,
Vol.5 No.11,
August
18,
2014
ABSTRACT:
Little
comparative research has specifically used farmers’ understandings of
agricultural weeds and herbicides usage as important indicators of their
environmental decision making and behaviours. This paper proposes that “organic’
farmers”, already attuned to environmental ideas, may be more likely to have
favourable understandings and behaviours towards agricultural weeds as an
integral part of environmentally sustainable agricultural farming systems than “conventional”
farmers. Using a behavioural approach, the ways in which farmers’ (situated in
central-southern England) understandings influence their environmental
behaviours were examined. Most “conventional” farmers’ fields were kept
relatively weed-free through herbicide usage. This contrasted with “organic”
farmers having less concern about removal of weeds (with their associated
invertebrates and seeds) which they understood contributes significantly
towards biodiversity and agricultural sustainability. A remarkably high 92 per
cent of “organic” farmers were critical of “conventional” farmers’ using
herbicides and pesticides, asserting that lack of pesticide and herbicide usage
as core reasons for their sustainability. This contrasted with most “conventional”
respondents who claim they used as few chemicals as practicable to minimise
environmental damage to soil and water, while maintaining adequate crop levels.
Nevertheless, such environmental understandings and behaviours may not always
be indicative of any differences that may be found between those farmers
commonly classified as “organic” and “conventional” in the UK as a whole.