Understanding Farmer Decision-Making

The collective decisions of hundreds of millions of farmers holds the potential to substantially shape progress on global sustainable development goals. In this research aim, the CAMP Lab is investigating the drivers and consequences of farmer decision-making, with special attention to the many contributions that farmers make to preserving biodiversity, influencing rural-urban migration patterns, and building sustainable livelihoods across the world.

We are particularly interested in the following research questions:

How do farmers perceive and respond to changing climate risks?

How do evolving land use incentives shape farmers’ decisions about marginal cropland?

What information sources most influence decisions about what and how to farm?

We’ll use this page to share our research findings and look forward to connecting with agricultural groups, policymakers, and researchers to advance our collective understanding of how farmers make decisions with critical implications for sustainable development, in Pennsylvania and around the world.