One in three farmers wants climate advice

More farmers make use of the climate advisory system as a means of adjustment in agriculture.

In 2021, on the initiative of the parties in the annual negotiations in agriculture, the Norwegian Agricultural Advisory Service (NLR) and Tine, the big milk cooperative, launched an offer of climate advice aimed at farmers. Under the scheme, farmers can apply for a grant to receive climate advice, and then, together with trained climate advisor, they can draw up a plan for climate measures on their own farm.

Project manager NIBIO (the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research) and Ruralis are evaluating the three-year pilot which will now be continued under the auspices of the Norwegian Directorate of Agriculture. Among the topics to be evaluated is knowledge of, and support for, the scheme as well as attitudes to this type of measure.

As part of the evaluation, we have included questions about climate advice in the ‘Trends in Norwegian Agriculture’ survey from 2022 and 2024. The results from the survey in 2024 show that both awareness and support are on the rise.

Around 34 per cent of Norwegian farmers state that they have carried out, or plan to apply for climate advice during the current year, compared to 20 per cent in 2022. While 41 per cent in 2022 stated that they didn’t know about the scheme, only 30 per cent are now unaware of it. But despite increased awareness of the scheme, the same proportion in 2024 as in 2022 say that they have no plans to make use of the offer of climate advice for their own farm.

According to figures from the Directorate of Agriculture, the number of applications for subsidies for climate advice has increased every year: from 268 in 2021 to over 1,100 in 2023. In total, close to 1,750 farmers have applied for subsidies during the pilot period. Overall, this shows that although both awareness and support are increasing, the increase is too modest for it to be realistic to achieve one of the goals of the scheme; that by 2025 all Norwegian farmers have been offered climate advice for their own farm.

Figures from ‘Trends in Norwegian Agriculture’ show that there is a need to continue subsidies for climate advice. While in 2022, 59 per cent stated that grants were an important motivator, this has now risen to 70 per cent. The increase may be due to several factors, but the support scheme itself has been highlighted by the Norwegian Directorate of Agriculture as an important part of the policy.

The project ends in autumn 2024.

https://www.nibio.no/nyheter/klimaradgiving-som-virkemiddel-i-jordbruket?locationfilter=true