Drawing from insights of the behavioural decision research, this study applies a double-hurdle (DH) estimation technique to assess social-psychological factors influencing the likelihood of perceiving climate risk and, given positive perception, the perceived patterns of climate change (CC) among farmers in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The model employs survey data collected from 352 small-scale farmers, 68% of whom had recognized CC, as indicated by perceptions of abnormal weather. Dominant perceptions are analysed using a principal component analysis technique and appraised based on meteorological records. The results point to higher probabilities of perceiving climate risk among farmers who experience more emotive mental imagery and those with stronger egalitarian values. The results further suggest that farmers who perceive CC based on affective impression and direct personal experience are more likely to suffer cognitive bias in their perceptions compared to farmers who perceive climate risk based on knowledge and analytic processing of climate information. Based on these findings, recommendations for effective CC communication policy are outlined

Cockburn, J., M. Rouget, R. Slotow, D. Roberts, R. Boon, E. Douwes, S. O’Donoghue, C. T. Downs, S. Mukherjee, W. Musakwa, O. Mutanga, T. Mwabvu, J. Odindi, A. Odindo, Ş. Procheş, S. Ramdhani, J. Ray-Mukherjee, Sershen, M. C. Schoeman, A. J. Smit, E. Wale, and S. Willows-Munro. 2016. How to build science-action partnerships for local land-use planning and management: lessons from Durban, South Africa. Ecology and Society 21(1):28.

This paper analyses factors influencing market participation decisions and the level of commercialisation among maize and pigeonpea smallholder farmers in Tanzania. The study utilises cross-sectional farm household-level data collected in 2010 from a randomly selected sample of 700 smallholder farming households. The two-step decision-making process was analysed using a Heckman selectivity procedure. The results showed that fixed transaction costs associated with market information and household characteristics such as gender and education level of the household head had a statistically significant influence on market participation. Proportional transaction costs (distance to market) and variables such as output prices, farm size, labour force, membership of farmer associations and geographical location of households influenced both market participation and intensity of participation. The results suggest that policies aimed at improving rural road infrastructure, market information systems, smallholder asset accumulation, human capital and promotion of farmer association could reduce transaction costs and enhance market participation and marketed supply by smallholder farmers.