Explaining the economic ‘irrationality’ of farmersʹ land use behaviour: The role of productivist attitudes and non-pecuniary benefits

Although the physical conditions of a farm and farming system will to some extent predispose a farmer towards converting land to alternative agricultural uses such as forestry, results presented in this paper suggest that differences in underlying farming motivations can also play an important role in explaining farmersʹ decision-making. Our findings suggest that even in the face of higher economic returns, some farmers may be reluctant to convert land to forestry as to do so would not be in keeping with their productivist attitudes. Other farmers may fear losing the non-pecuniary benefits derived from ‘working the land’. We conclude that economic incentives alone are unlikely to encourage certain cohorts of farmers to consider alternative land uses such as farm forestry and that policy ought to be guided by a better understanding of the differing farming motivations of farm operators.