Biogas Production
Crops Management
Water Management
Energy Management
Rewarding Mechanisms
Agroforestry and Relation to Landscape
Manure Storage and Spreading
Soil Health and Biodiversity
Grassland Management
Forage Production
Herd Management
The “Farmer and their Advisory Journey” workshop, developed within the ClimateSmartAdvisors (CSA), was adapted for delivery at the Carbon Farming Summit 2025. In this session, participants engage with a pre-defined representation of a farmer’s journey toward adopting a climate-smart practice, illustrating stages farmers may experience when exploring, testing, and implementing change on the farm.
Engaging farmers in climate action is not only a technical challenge but also a behavioural one. Insights from the Climate Farm Demo conceptual framework highlight that decisions are influenced by factors such as cost, perceived risk to the farm business, social norms, personal values, and trust in both the information provided and the source delivering it.
Building on these insights, participants explored and discussed motivations and enabling factors that can encourage farmers to adopt climate-smart practices. These included financial incentives, control over decisions, trusted advice, social proof, peer learning, cultural factors, visible results, and policy signals.
Participants were invited to map advisory activities along this journey, identifying where and how advisors can influence farmer decision-making and support progress. Examples discussed included providing locally relevant climate information, facilitating peer learning among farmers, coordinating advisory support, and communicating the practical and economic implications of climate-smart practices.
Discussions during the workshop highlighted the importance of recognising diverse farmer motivations and the central role advisors play in supporting climate action. Trust, peer learning, and clear communication of the practical and economic benefits of climate-smart practices were identified as key elements for strengthening engagement. Consistent messaging, credible evidence, and peer examples can support advisory efforts and complement technical tools that help identify suitable climate actions for individual farms.
This workshop approach provides a practical reflection tool for advisors to explore where they can have the greatest impact in supporting farmers along the journey toward adopting climate-smart practices. By mapping advisory activities to different stages of farmer decision-making, advisors can identify opportunities to provide relevant information, facilitate peer learning, and support farmers in assessing and testing new practices.
The adapted format used a pre-defined farmer journey to enable discussion within limited time. In future applications, using the original workshop format, where participants build the farmer journey themselves, may allow for deeper reflection on farmer decision-making
processes. However, when time is limited or when the objective is to focus specifically on where advisors can have impact, the adapted format provides a practical and effective alternative.
