Risk: perceptions and management responses in a dryland farming system

Abstract

The broad objective of this study is to investigate how farmers view risk and respond to it in this deregulated environment. For a farm type which appears inherently quite risky, an attempt is made to understand what farmers understand by risk, how they perceive different sources of risk, and how they are responding to the risk they are facing. The study of risk is timely because of the vastly changed environment farmers are experiencing. An understanding of risk producer perceptions of is needed to aid extension work in the design of risk efficient strategies, and is necessary if decision maker behaviour under uncertainty is to be predicted with any degree of accuracy