Farmers’ learning preferences and risk management choices

Understanding how farmers learn and how this influences their decisions is still a key question in research, especially in the context of increasing challenges and uncertainties. We explore whether and how different learning preferences, notably learning by doing, from other farmers and through social media, influence farmers’ risk management (RM) choices. Based on a survey of farmers in Spain and the UK, we employed multivariate probit regressions and Poisson models with instrument variables. We found that all learning preferences are significantly correlated to RM choice, with learning through social media and from peers leading to more strategies adopted by the farmer, and learning by doing leading to fewer strategies. The results, however, show that each learning preference affects different specific RM strategies. Our findings suggest that policymakers should consider leveraging informal learning networks to improve farmers’ RM, whereas policy incentives might be designed to formalize and promote social media use (also by existing extension services) to boost the adoption of RM strategies.