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The authors thank the experts and institutions that participated in the study and provided contacts with farmers in the case study areas: Florida Goat Breeders National Association (ACRIFLOR, Cordoba, Spain), Agrifood Research and Quality Centre of the Pedroches Valley (CICAP, Cordoba, Spain), Livestock Cooperative of the Pedroches Valley (COVAP, Cordoba, Spain), and Manchega Sheep Breeders Association (AGRAMA, Albacete, Spain). The authors extend their gratitude to the farmers who participated in the study and agreed to be surveyed by the research team. We thank Marina Olalla Romero Varo (Departamento de Ciencia Animal, Centro de Investigacion y Tecnologia Agroalimentaria de Aragon, Zaragoza, Spain) for the preparation of the map included in Figure 4. This research was financed by grants no. RTA2015-00035 (project E-SelET) and PCI2019-103533 (project AdaptHerd) of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Madrid, Spain), and grants no. A25_23R and A26_23R of Research Group Funds from the Government of Aragon. Enrique Munoz-Ulecia was supported by a contract from the EU project LIFE PollinAction (LIFE19 NAT/IT/000848).

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The importance of the messenger in climate change communication to farmers

Publicated to:Italian Journal Of Animal Science. 24 (1): 1336-1344 - 2025-12-31 24(1), DOI: 10.1080/1828051x.2025.2515264

Authors: Munoz-Ulecia, Enrique; Bernues, Alberto; Carabano, Maria Jesus; Joy, Margalida; Martin-Collado, Daniel

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Abstract

Agriculture needs to mitigate its impacts and adapt to new environmental conditions. To this end, communicating climate change to farmers is essential but remains a challenge, since many stakeholders (e.g. public administration, sectoral stakeholders, environmentalists) engage with farmers, conveying diverse messages about climate change and the role of agriculture. Here we aim to analyse farmers' perceptions of climate change and how these relate to their trust in different stakeholders. We conducted a survey with 167 livestock farmers across Spain, gathering data about their perceptions on climate change severity and origin, and to what extent its importance has been exaggerated. We also analysed farmers' trust in different information sources, including farmers associations (i.e. breed associations, farmer organisations and cooperatives), agricultural organisations, technical publications, veterinarians, agricultural firms, government agencies, scientists, environmentalists, animal activists, and the media. Our results show that farmers believe climate change exists but a high proportion are sceptical about its origin and severity. Farmers' trust in information sources influences their perception of climate change. Farmers who trust public institutions, environmentalists, animal activists, and the media are more likely to view climate change as human-driven and perceive its impacts as severe, rejecting claims of exaggeration. In contrast, those who trust veterinarians, cooperatives, agricultural firms, and farmer organisations tend to see climate change as a hybrid human-natural process and believe its impacts are overstated. The results highlight the need to improve the science-policy-farmers dialogue to make farmers more aware of the potential consequences of climate change on farming and trigger adaptation.

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