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Rationalising risk: Grower strategies to manage plant disease in the UK wheat and potato sectors

Maye, Damian; Ilbery, Brian; Little, Ruth

Authors

Damian Maye

Brian Ilbery

Ruth Little



Abstract

The threat that plant diseases and pests pose to food production and ecosystem services is neither well understood in the social sciences nor publicly debated, despite the fact that it is significant and growing. This paper presents findings from interviews with wheat and potato growers in two parts of the UK (Lincolnshire and Herefordshire). It uses conceptual work on risk and risk perception to understand how farmers encounter, comprehend and manage plant disease. Plant disease was perceived by growers as a significant but controllable risk mostly through the (generally) prophylactic use of spray chemicals. The introduction of revised European legislation governing - and potentially restricting - the use of 'key' agro-chemicals may, in the future, reduce the perception and level of control growers feel they have over disease in their crops. Perceptions of plant disease risk and strategies to ameliorate their impact involve scientific deliberation and appear to be highly rational. However, such perceptions are not merely conceived in scientific terms. Decisionmaking is rational but encultured as a practical farm management priority rather than pure scientific risk. © 2012 Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers).

Citation

Maye, D., Ilbery, B., & Little, R. (2012). Rationalising risk: Grower strategies to manage plant disease in the UK wheat and potato sectors. Geographical Journal, 178(4), 338-347. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4959.2012.00485.x

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Dec 1, 2012
Deposit Date Dec 12, 2012
Journal Geographical Journal
Print ISSN 0016-7398
Electronic ISSN 1475-4959
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 178
Issue 4
Pages 338-347
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4959.2012.00485.x
Keywords UK wheat and potato sectors, food security, plant disease, crop protection, risk and risk perception, practical rationality
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/941554
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4959.2012.00485.x


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