Doctoral Dissertation Research: Weather Risk, Climate Adaptation and Farmer Decision Making in the Southwestern United States

该项目将重点分析美国西南部不同农民群体可获得的财政支持和信息，他们都面临着日益严峻的天气挑战，尤其是水资源短缺。该项目将分析不同的资源组合和获取这些资源的途径如何增强农业对生态和经济挑战的抵御能力。通过分析制度和社会对农场决策的影响，该研究将扩展对农民选择的理解，以及这些决定塑造农场景观的方式。它还将拓宽人们对工业化国家农民如何应对气候变化的理解。这项研究将调查美国的农业政策如何成为减少农业易受天气风险影响的有效工具。它还将强调目前代表性不足的少数民族农民获得农业支持计划的机会。此外，该项目还将评估不同种族、不同农业生产方式和规模的农民的相对脆弱性。因此，该项目将分析不同农场类型的农业制度的差异影响，强调美国农业政策在支持应对变化的气候方面可能有效。为了让农民和政策制定者更深入地了解获取资源的不同途径可能如何影响农场，研究人员将通过演讲和出版物分享研究结果。该项目建立在过去网络政治生态学研究的基础上，首次将该框架应用于工业化农业。网络政治生态学分析的是一个行动者（通常是农民）在其中运作的系统。它分析了对个人决策的影响，并分析了哪些因素对最终做出的决策有最大的影响。因素可能包括诸如经济转变、生态条件和社会背景等影响。该框架还决定了这些因素在决策过程中如何相互作用。该研究将集中在以下问题上：面对当前和未来的天气风险，农民的社会关系网络所介导的制度关系如何影响他们的农业战略？通过对新墨西哥州两个县的各种农民的一系列访谈，研究人员将确定一组农民网络进行分析。访谈将集中在农民的决定和哪些因素对这些决定有最显著的影响。农民将帮助研究人员构建他们的决策历史。研究人员将采访其他关键参与者，如推广代理人和保险公司，以获得有关制度如何影响农场决策以及机构中与个人的社会关系如何影响农民最终使用信息和资源的方式的额外信息。访谈数据将进行分析，以确定关键决策及其与天气事件的关系如何在不同的农民网络中有所不同。在天气出现重大挑战的年份，将特别关注农民的决定，这些决定会给农场带来非常积极的结果。

This project will focus on analyzing financial support and information available to different groups of farmers in the southwestern United States, all of whom are facing increasing weather challenges, especially in the form of water shortages. The project will analyze how different sets of resources and access to those resources may enhance farm resilience to ecological and economic challenges. By analyzing the institutional and social influences on farm decisions, the research will extend understandings of farmers' choices and the ways in which those decisions shape the farm landscape. It will also broaden understanding of how farmers in the industrialized world deal with climatic change. The research will investigate how U.S. farm policy may be an effective tool for decreasing farm vulnerability to weather risks. It will also highlight current access of underrepresented minority farmers to farm support programs. In addition, the project will assess the relative vulnerability of farmers of different ethnicities with a variety of farm production styles and sizes. As such, the project will analyze the differential effects of agricultural institutions across contrasting farm types, highlighting for whom U.S. farm policy may be effective in supporting responses to a variable climate. To offer farmers and policy-makers a deeper understanding of how differing access to resources may be affecting farms, the researchers will share the results of the research through presentations and a publication. The project builds on past research in network political ecology, applying the framework for the first time to industrialized agriculture. Network political ecology analyzes the system in which an actor, often a farmer, operates. It parses the influences on individuals' decisions and analyzes which factors have the greatest power over the decisions that are ultimately made. Factors may include such influences as economic shifts, ecological conditions and social context. The framework also determines how those factors interact in the production of decisions. The research will focus on the question: How do farmers' institutional ties, mediated by their network of social relations, shape their farming strategies in the face of current and future weather risks? Through a series of interviews with a variety of farmers in two New Mexico counties, the researchers will identify sets of farmer networks to analyze. Interviews will center on farmers' decisions and which factors have most significantly influenced those decisions. Farmers will aid the researchers in constructing their decision-making histories. The researchers will interview other key actors, such as extension agents and insurers, to gain additional information about how institutions shape farm decisions and how social relationships with individuals in institutions may affect the way farmers ultimately use information and resources. Interview data will be analyzed to determine how key decisions and their relationships to weather events differ among different networks of farmers. Particular attention will be paid to farmer decisions that result in highly positive outcomes for farms in years when weather presents significant challenges.