Business Economics Group, Wageningen University & Research, Hollandseweg 1, 6706 KN, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Toxins (Basel). 2021 Feb 14;13(2):144. doi: 10.3390/toxins13020144.
species infection in wheat can lead to Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) and contamination with mycotoxins. To fully exploit more recent insights into FHB and mycotoxin management, farmers might need to adapt their agronomic management, which can be stimulated through incentives. This study aimed to identify incentives to stimulate European farmers to adapt their agronomic management to reduce FHB and related mycotoxins in wheat. A questionnaire was distributed among 224 wheat farmers from Italy, the Netherlands, Serbia, and the United Kingdom. Using the respondents' data, Bayesian Network modelling was applied to estimate the probability that farmers would adapt their current agronomic management under eight different incentives given the conditions set by their farm and farmer characteristics. Results show that most farmers would adapt their current agronomic management under the incentives "paid extra when wheat contains low levels of mycotoxins" and "wheat is tested for the presence of mycotoxins for free". The most effective incentive depended on farm and farmer characteristics, such as country, crop type, size of arable land, soil type, education, and mycotoxin knowledge. Insights into the farmer characteristics related to incentives can help stakeholders in the wheat supply chain, such as farmer cooperatives and the government, to design tailor-made incentive plans.
小麦的物种感染会导致赤霉病（FHB）和霉菌毒素污染。为了充分利用最近对赤霉病和霉菌毒素管理的深入了解，农民可能需要调整他们的农业管理，而激励措施可以刺激这种调整。本研究旨在确定激励措施，以刺激欧洲农民调整其农业管理，以减少小麦中的赤霉病和相关霉菌毒素。研究人员向来自意大利、荷兰、塞尔维亚和英国的 224 名小麦种植户分发了一份问卷。研究人员利用受访者的数据，应用贝叶斯网络模型来估计在八种不同激励措施下，农民会在多大程度上根据其农场和农民特征来调整当前的农业管理。结果表明，在“当小麦中霉菌毒素含量低时支付额外费用”和“免费检测小麦中霉菌毒素的存在”这两项激励措施下，大多数农民都会调整他们当前的农业管理。最有效的激励措施取决于农场和农民的特征，例如国家、作物类型、耕地面积、土壤类型、教育程度和霉菌毒素知识。对与激励措施相关的农民特征的深入了解可以帮助小麦供应链中的利益相关者，如农民合作社和政府，设计定制化的激励计划。
