Farmers’ perspectives of future management of winter oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.): A case study from north-eastern Germany

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eja.2021.126350Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Farmers anticipated to grow less winter oilseed rape (WOSR) in the future.

  • Farmers foresee various changes in terms of WOSR management practices.

  • Yield stability influences farmers’ decision-making regarding future WOSR growth.

  • Future risks of insect pests/diseases on WOSR production are farmers main concerns.

  • Farmers’ behaviour is influenced by regulations regarding chemical use.

Abstract

Recent analysis of European on-farm data revealed yield instability for winter oilseed rape (WOSR). To better facilitate farmers, the main participants in agriculture, it is of vital importance to interpret how the fluctuation in crop yields and other potential factors may influence farmers’ perspectives and decision-making in the future. However, few studies have explored this aspect.

This research aims to focus on farmers′ concerns and anticipated behaviour adjustments for future WOSR production. By using a case study in north-eastern Germany, an online farmer survey was developed to explore the situation regarding past and future production and management of European WOSR.

One of the most interesting findings is that the farmer participants anticipated to grow a smaller share of WOSR in the future with a one-year longer rotation gap. Crop yields was suggested to be a major factor influencing this decision change.

Farmers are concerned about the future infestation risks of insect pests and fungal diseases in WOSR, thus they expressed potential related adjustments in crop varieties (Turnip yellows virus and clubroot resistant cultivars) and management strategies (e.g., increase insecticide use, adjust rotation rotations). Their behaviours were also highly influenced by the regulation changes at European and national levels, especially regarding glyphosate and fertilizer restrictions. Potential future weather extremes caused by climate changes are also of concerns to farmers.

This study helps provide indications for future WOSR production in Europe. However, the findings about farmers’ behavioural inclinations due to WOSR yield instability, regulation adjustments and environmental changes may also be useful for other regions globally that have similar conditions.

Introduction

Current agriculture has many complex challenges and risks (Komarek et al., 2020), not only the adaption to extreme environmental events (e.g. heat, drought and flooding) (Hansen et al., 2019) and the sustainable use of natural resources, but also fluctuations in international markets, agricultural and environmental policies and changes in food systems (Darnhofer et al., 2016; Komarek et al., 2020; Nijs, 2014). Moreover, on-farm challenges are exacerbated by increasing risk of potential pest pressure (Lamichhane et al., 2015). Building resilient agricultural systems is essential to prepare for future challenges (Bullock et al., 2017; Folke, 2016; Folke et al., 2010).

Crop yield stability is an important trait and determines the predictability of farm profits on a global scale (Brown et al., 2019). In recent years, the on-farm data revealed a common yield instability of winter oilseed rape (Brassica napus L., WOSR) in Europe (Brown et al., 2019; Destatis, 2020), which is one of the leading growing regions of WOSR worldwide (FAOSTAT, 2018); Pullens et al., 2019). Indeed, WOSR yield stability was not improved during the last four decades and is still lower compared to other main arable crops (Berry and Spink, 2006; Rondanini et al., 2012; Zheng et al., 2020). Because of this, the production area of WOSR has also decreased (Arthey, 2020).

Many studies have been conducted to search for reasons behind this phenomenon (Brown et al., 2019; Diepenbrock, 2000; Drebenstedt et al., 2020; Hegewald et al., 2018; Pullens et al., 2019; Sharif et al., 2017). An important reason is the insect damage. Worldwide, insect pest has already been shown to be more damaging than other pest types (weeds, fungal diseases) for oilseed rape (Zheng et al., 2020). Insect pest control has become particularly difficult in Europe due the increase in resistance of several key insect pests to insecticides caused by a narrowed range of available modes of actions. Also due to the ban of neonicotinoid seed dressings in 2014 (including imidacloprid, clothianidin and thiamethoxam) (European Commission Regulation (EU) No 485/2013), increased yield losses caused by the cabbage stem flea beetle is considered (Kathage et al., 2018; Scott and Bilsborrow, 2019; Zhang et al., 2017). European farmers believed that the costs and amount of insecticides used, and the time required to protect crops have increased (Kathage et al., 2018). Limited and narrowed options in insect control threatens the profitability of WOSR (Arthey, 2020).

Furthermore, several studies have linked inter-annual WOSR yield variation with weather conditions (Brown et al., 2019; Peltonen-Sainio et al., 2010; Sharif et al., 2017), especially with variations in temperature and rainfall (Robertson and Lilley, 2016; Weymann et al., 2015). Nowosad et al. (2016) suggested that WOSR yield variation caused by weather is much larger than by differences among cultivars. For instance, deficiency in the water availability occurring from flowering to the end of seed set was found to reduce the seed yield of WOSR (Champolivier and Merrien, 1996). Also, the average temperature in early winter is strongly linked to variation in WOSR yield, low temperatures appear to be correlated with higher yields (Brown et al., 2019).

One more aspect concerning common yield instability of WOSR refers to nitrogen use. Different nitrogen management strategies further influence productivity of WOSR (Beres et al., 2019; Rathke et al., 2005). The development of WOSR requires higher nitrogen inputs compared to many other crops (Bouchet et al., 2016; Rathke et al., 2005). The EU Nitrates Directive (Council Directive 91/676/EEC) (European Commission, 2017), however, restricts the application of nitrogen from manure for WOSR cropping.

Future production challenges and resilient WOSR cropping require farmers to have high level of knowledge and skills (George et al., 2007; Šūmane et al., 2018). For an agricultural system to be resilient, it must balance the ability to be efficient in the current context with the ability to reorganise and adapt in response to unforeseen changes in the future (Darnhofer, 2021). Peltonen-Sainio et al. (2020) proclaimed ‘winds of change for farmers’ and proposed knowledge sharing on future changes and coping measures. On the other hand, farmers are the main participants and decision-makers in agriculture. Recognition of farmers’ perception of risks and preferred risk management strategies is essential for the development of tailored training programmes (Sulewski and Kłoczko-Gajewska, 2014). However, detailed information on farmers’ perspectives of future crop management is lacking. Little is known about the potential important factors that influence farmers’ considerations and actions regarding future cropping decisions.

By focusing on the WOSR in the European context, this study analyses farmers’ perspectives of future crop management practices using north-eastern (NE) Germany as a case study. Differences between past and future cropping decisions are compared, and potential factors that may cause such differences are discussed. We chose this study region because Germany is a major WOSR growing country in Europe (Carré and Pouzet, 2014; Kathage et al., 2018), and its main production region is in the NE, especially the federal state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (17.8 % of the WOSR production in Germany in 2014−20) (Destatis, 2018). For the period 2012–2015, 22 % of the arable land in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania was devoted to WOSR production, delivering on average 21 % of the overall gross farm income. However, similar to the situation in Europe (Destatis, 2020), the yields of WOSR in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania have dropped significantly, leading to a decrease of overall farm profit to around 15 % in 2016 – 2018.

Section snippets

Case study region

An online survey of WOSR farmers located in the Federal state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in north-eastern Germany was conducted (Fig. 1A). The surveyed farms are located in three contrasting regions in terms of elevation, geo morphology and climate according to the German agricultural and forest zonation system BKR ("Boden-Klima-Raum", German for "Soil-Climate-Zone") (Tab. A1). We used the segmentation of Germany into soil-climate-zones (Roßberg et al., 2007) to categorize the

Information about farms

Table 1 provides insights about farm characteristic of sampled farms. Fifty-seven percent of participants managed arable farms, while another smaller share (42.9 %) managed mixed farms with arable land and livestock. The average farm size of our sample was 1198.6 ha. Of the respondents, 50.5 % (n = 46) managed a total area > 1000 ha; while another large share (46.2 %) managed 200−1000 ha and a small percentage 3.3 %) managed a total area < 200 ha. The mean on-farm soil quality was 40.3, most

Discussion

This study analysed farmers’ perspectives of future WOSR management and the potential factors behind it. Based on Andert et al. (2019), who proposed opinion surveys to obtain comprehensive overviews about farmers’ individual appraisements, we conducted an online survey among farmers to elicit details about future WOSR cropping in NE Germany. We used the ‘Likert scale’ as a psychometric survey question format designed to quantify intensity of farmers’ perspectives. For this study, the main

Author contributions

Sabine Andert and Andrea Ziesemer prepared and published the questionnaire. All authors supported the analysis of the responded questionnaires. Sabine Andert and Han Zhang prepared the first manuscript draft. Writing was contributed by all authors. Finally, all authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors report no declarations of interest.

Acknowledgement

We would like to express many thanks to all the farmers in the case study region Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania who participated in the survey.

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