Eliciting the Decision Influences of Stressed Farmers

Abstract

This study aims to elicit the influences on farmers decision-making, especially when those decisions result in substantial change such as whether they will participate in the government’s irrigation modernisation program or selling their water outright and leaving the irrigation industry. The study group of northern Victorian irrigation farmers are experiencing profound change because their industry and their region is in decline from a prolonged drought, low commodity prices and uncertainty from far reaching government water reforms. Qualitative responses to a mail-out survey were analysed using the text analysis tool, Leximancer. The program automatically uncovered a set of influences on farmers’ decision-making that became more easily understood when examined using Leximancers’ visual conceptual map.

Keywords: Farmers, Irrigation, Leximancer, Lifestyle, Family Succession

JEL Classification: ZOO