Agricultural sensitivity to climate change and variability in southern Ontario

This research, focused on the Southern Ontario townships of Guelph, Fullarton, and McKillop, and examined the farmers' perceptions regarding dry year events, their responses to past and possible future variable climate (dry years) relative to other forces of change.;Although most operations were impacted by dry conditions over the last 5 years, it was found that relative to other forces, climate conditions prompted few farmers to change their operation. The expectation farmers had towards future dry year events did not appear to impact response, however, response seemed to be influenced by the operator's experience with past dry year events. Sensitivity, in terms of response, was shown to increase as variability of climate increased. Many farm operators, however, would not respond to increased variability even if dry year frequency was to triple from current conditions. With respect to government policy, many operators indicated they would use crop insurance as a means to stabilize their incomes under increased variability but few would rely on ad-hoc government compensation programs. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...