New Perspectives on Farmer Identities and Agri-Environmental Measures (New-ID)

• Applicants: Professorin Dr. Ann-Kathrin Koessler; Dr. Adrian Rothers
• Subject Area: Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Policy, Agricultural Sociology
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 581203999

Agriculture can play a pivotal role in addressing challenges of biodiversity loss and environmental degradation. Farmers’ agri-environmental management decisions—related to practices such as reducing fertilizer use, maintaining hedgerows, or adopting conservation tillage—are central to this effort. Despite extensive policy initiatives, however, the uptake and impact of such agri-environmental measures (AEMs) remain limited. Agricultural social scientists have considered a range of social and psychological factors that help explain farmers’ agri-environmental decision-making. Among these, farmers’ identities–their understanding of who they are as farmers–are receiving increasing attention. The current literature, however, is characterized by conceptual incoherence as to which identities farmers hold, and how to define and measure them. We also observe a lack of explanatory depth, in that little attention is given to how farmers construct their identity, and how exactly identities shape decision behavior. Consequently, significant potential for leveraging farmer identities to foster AEM uptake remains untapped. Our project aims to provide a systematic and deepened understanding of the identity-AEM link by triangulating the link between farmer identities and AEMs from different perspectives, and then translate this knowledge into identity-informed policy and intervention strategies. We will start by mapping the semantic scope of farmer identities, incorporating researchers’ and farmers’ own understandings of which aspects matter most. Based on this mapping, we create and psychometrically validate a farmer identity questionnaire. This questionnaire is used to chart the farmer identity landscape in Germany–the prevalence of different identities, their distribution across geo-socio-economic context conditions, and how identity types relate to AEM uptake. We then complement this aggregate, standardized approach with an individual-centered, narrative approach, which views identities as stories that individuals tell about themselves and that powerfully shape cognition and behavior. Using in-depth case studies, we will analyze farmers’ identity constructions and how they provide a reference frame for their AEM views and decision-making. The two approaches will then be bridged by collecting narrative identity data from farmers at scale via a mixed-method survey, and quantifying psychological properties of these narratives. These indicators can elucidate the psychological situation of different farmer identities and explain how, psychologically, identities position farmers toward or away from AEMs. Lastly, we will develop and empirically test actionable and practical identity-informed policy and intervention strategies. By linking psychological depth with practical policy and intervention design, the project offers a novel and actionable framework for fostering sustainable change in agriculture.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants