Agricultural practice, climate change and the soil erosion hazard in parts of southeast England

The paper presents the results of questionnaire surveys of two samples of farmers from erosion-prone areas of southeast England. The farmers were questioned about their perceptions of the erosion hazard, of climate change, and of the extent to which these and other factors influenced decision-making on their farms. The erosion hazard has only minor influence on land-use decisions, but the use of low-cost land management practices designed to reduce the erosion risk are widespread, especially in West Sussex. Most farmers believe that the climate has changed in recent years, but impressions of how it has changed are inconsistent. Knowledge of potential future climate change is very limited. The majority of farmers in the two surveys consider erosion to be a minor annoyance to their fanning operations which has minimal impact on their past, present or future agricultural land-use policy. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.