Eliciting farmers’ preferences towards agriculture education in Northern Ireland

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dc.contributor.authorAngioloni, Simone
dc.contributor.authorCerroni, Simone
dc.contributor.authorJack, Claire
dc.contributor.authorAshfield, Austen
dc.contributor.departmentEconomics
dc.date.accessioned2024-03-25T16:36:30Z
dc.date.available2024-03-25T16:36:30Z
dc.date.issued2023-08-23
dc.descriptionPublication history: Accepted - 5 August 2023; Published online - 23 August 2023.
dc.description.abstractPurpose Agriculture education promotes farmers and societal welfare through a more efficient use of resources and the adoption of sustainable farming practices. Nevertheless, farmers’ educational attainment is limited across countries. This study explores farmers’ intention to participate in formal agriculture education. Design/methodology/approach A discrete choice experiment survey with 363 farmers exploring their preferences for different specifications within a diploma in agriculture was employed. We focus on Northern Ireland, a country with a relatively large agricultural sector and were farmers have a low level of formal education. Findings Our results show that farmers exhibited a preference for short courses delivered in the evenings, with 75% of the teaching time delivered online, favouring educational topics linked to farm performance against those related to socio-environmental outcomes. Part-time younger farmers, operating in small farms located in less favoured areas, reported the highest willingness to pay for the course. However, farmers that had previously participated in a Young Farmer Payment Scheme reported the lowest interest in undertaking the course. Practical implications The study provides useful information to education providers in relation to the design of agriculture courses to better meet farmers’ preferences and therefore encourage levels of uptake. Secondly, the study can help policymakers to make informed decisions about policy instruments incentivising farmers to engage in education. Theoretical implications By drawing from random parameter choice models, the study highlights that the heterogeneity of farmers’ preferences should be considered when modelling their decision to engage in agriculture education. Originality/value This is the first study that elicits farmers’ preferences towards agriculture education via a discrete choice experiment. Secondly, the study explores preference heterogeneity based on farmers and farms’ characteristics.
dc.description.sponsorshipThis work was supported by Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, UK Government: [Grant Number grant number E-I 19-2-02].
dc.identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12518/701
dc.identifier.citationAngioloni, S., Cerroni, S., Jack, C. and Ashfield, A. (2023) ‘Eliciting farmers’ preferences towards agriculture education in Northern Ireland’, The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension. Informa UK Limited. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/1389224x.2023.2249446.
dc.identifier.issn1389-224X
dc.identifier.issn1750-8622 (electronic)
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1080/1389224X.2023.2249446
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherTaylor & Francis
dc.rights© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
dc.subjectAgriculture education
dc.subjectsustainable farming
dc.subjectwillingness to pay
dc.subjectyoung farmer payment
dc.subjectdiscrete choice experiment
dc.subjectmixed logit
dc.titleEliciting farmers’ preferences towards agriculture education in Northern Ireland
dc.typeArticle
dcterms.dateAccepted2023-08-05
dcterms.dateSubmitted2022-12-08

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