EUPiG - Behavioural factors evident in farmer approaches to dealing with specified challenges facing the EU Pork industry

The uptake of new ways of working is often triggered by not only a pressure or challenge perceived by a person, but also by some form of push or pull factor – a ‘motivator’. These are given different terms but can be thought of as a nudge or push to take the leap from what has been done traditionally to a new process. EU PiG ran a Grand Prix challenge over four years that specifically asked EU pork producers (farmers) across 13 countries how they would deal with a named challenge. Over the four years, there was a total of 830 responses to 32 separate challenges. The proposed solutions for those challenges have been assigned a suggested motivator based on the RESET model – a suggestion based on the RESET descriptors of what is the likely factor that dominated the producer’s choice of strategy to deal with challenges. The distribution is heavily dominated by tools and technology as solutions to challenges. However, education of groups and of how producers complete their own internal production processes also dominated solutions. Interestingly, some specific challenges around engagement with consumers showed bias towards social interactions and society as a motivator for change. Others showed that legislation was essential to encourage a step into new production models, either as a pull due to guaranteed market protection or as a push due to potential non-compliance.

Catagorise best practices presented as part of the EUPiG Grand Prix under the RESET model

Identify trends by thematic area, year or partner organisation

Discuss possible causes for trends in the data

Suggest next steps for Farmer to Farmer learning that looks to facilitate behaviour change