Barriers to adoption of sustainable agriculture practices: Change agent perspectives

AbstractConventional agriculture systems of production often lead to environmental degradation, economic problems and even social conflict. The efficacy of agriculture systems conducive to the economic, environmental and social sustainability of farming operations has been demonstrated, yet the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices is not widespread. This qualitative study is based on a web-based survey instrument designed to elicit the barriers to adoption of sustainable agriculture practices (SAP) perceived by a positional and network sample of 269 change agents working with farmers in the US South. The analysis examines the general proposition that reluctance to change to SAP is an overused rationale of change agents that tends to mask real barriers that we endeavor to elicit in the survey. It was found that despite having support from technical assistance providers, farmers are rarely adopting SAP. Change agents often are not well prepared to attend to farmers' needs regarding SAP, particularly the needs of specific farming situations. Thus, farmers often struggle to obtain accurate information about the benefits of SAP. Government support programs often fail to encourage adoption due to lack of funding, inappropriate design and ineffective targeting of incentives. Reluctance to change is frequently mentioned by change agents, but more as a way of blaming farmers for nonadoption than explaining the often tangible reasons for their behaviors. Social barriers, land tenure, infrastructure and incompatibility are other significant impediments to adoption. Strategies such as improved management of the existing information, careful design of economic support programs and extension efforts addressed to change agents themselves could help overcome some of the barriers identified by change agents.

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The Integrated Cropping Calendar Information System: A Coping Mechanism to Climate Variability for Sustainable Agriculture in Indonesia

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13116495 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (11) ◽

pp. 6495

Author(s):

Yayan Apriyana ◽

Elza Surmaini ◽

Woro Estiningtyas ◽

Aris Pramudia ◽

Fadhlullah Ramadhani ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Information System ◽

Climate Variability ◽

Sustainable Agriculture ◽

Task Force ◽

Global Climate ◽

Crop Damage ◽

Accurate Information ◽

Cropping Pattern ◽

Wet Season ◽

Local Conditions

Climate change and its variability are some of the most critical threats to sustainable agriculture, with potentially severe consequences on Indonesia’s agriculture, such as changes in rainfall patterns, especially the onset of the wet season and the temporal distribution of rainfall. Most Indonesian farmers receive support from agricultural extension services, and therefore, design their agricultural calendar based on personal experience without considering global climate phenomena, such as La Niña and El Niño, which difficult to interpret on a local scale. This paper describes the Integrated Cropping Calendar Information System (ICCIS) as a mechanism for adapting to climate variability. The ICCIS contains recommendations on planting time, cropping pattern, planting area, varieties, fertilizers, agricultural machinery, potential livestock feed, and crop damage due to climate extremes for rice, maize, and soybean. To accelerate the dissemination of information, the ICCIS is presented in an integrated web-based information system. The ICCIS is disseminated to extension workers and farmers by Task Force of the Assessment Institute for Agricultural Technology (AIAT) located in each province. Based on the survey results, it is known that the ICCIS adoption rate is moderate to high. The AIAT must actively encourage and support the ICCIS Task Force team in each province. Concerning the technological recommendations, it is necessary to update the recommendations for varieties, fertilizer, and feed to be more compatible with local conditions. More accurate information and more intensive dissemination can enrich farmers’ knowledge, allowing for a better understanding of climate hazards and maintaining agricultural production.

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Corporate finance and the governance implications of removing government support programs

Journal of Banking & Finance ◽

10.1016/j.jbankfin.2015.11.005 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 63 ◽

pp. 35-47 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Martin Jacob ◽

Sofia Johan ◽

Denis Schweizer ◽

Feng Zhan

Keyword(s):

Corporate Finance ◽

Government Support ◽

Support Programs

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Information Acquisition and Conservation Farming Practices for Sustainable Agriculture in Rural Vietnam

Asian Journal of Agriculture and Development ◽

10.37801/ajad2021.18.1.3 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

pp. 32-48

Author(s):

Quynh Anh Le Thi ◽

◽

Yasuharu Shimamura ◽

Hiroyuki Yamada ◽

◽

...

Keyword(s):

Rural Communities ◽

Sustainable Agriculture ◽

Land Tenure ◽

Information Acquisition ◽

Agricultural Extension ◽

Household Wealth ◽

Organic Fertilizers ◽

Agricultural Practice ◽

Extension Services ◽

Farming Households

Soil fertility conservation has become an increasing concern in Vietnamese agriculture owing to excessive use of agrochemicals. The use of organic fertilizers is considered an environment-friendly practice for sustainable agriculture. Although environmental awareness has emerged and production technologies of organic fertilizers have been introduced in recent years, their adoption remains limited among farming households. This study focuses on the causal effects of information acquisition on the use of organic fertilizers from agricultural extension services and from peers of farming households. The estimation results show that land size, land tenure, educational level, family labor endowment, and household wealth are significantly associated with the likelihood of using organic fertilizers. Information acquisition through both information sources positively affects the use of organic fertilizers. However, information acquisition from agricultural extension services has a greater marginal impact than that from peers. Despite its lower influence, information acquisition from peers plays a supplemental role in incentivizing farming households to use organic fertilizers as an environmentfriendly agricultural practice among rural communities in Vietnam.

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Productivity and lending during the pandemic

Voprosy Ekonomiki ◽

10.32609/0042-8736-2021-7-123-141 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 123-141

Author(s):

E. V. Bessonova ◽

S. V. Popova ◽

N. A. Turdyeva ◽

A. N. Tsvetkova

Keyword(s):

Government Support ◽

Economic Recovery ◽

Support Programs ◽

Access To Credit ◽

High Productivity ◽

Government Lending ◽

The Government ◽

Number Of Firms

The access to credits for companies with high productivity is an important factor for the economic recovery after the shock. In this paper, we analyze changes in banks’ lending to Russian companies’ in 2020. Our analysis shows that in 2020 the volume of new ruble credits increased relative to the level of the previous year. At the same time, there were changes in loans’ structure, which are explained by the effect of government lending support programs that began in May—June 2020. This fact indicates that a large number of firms made use of these programs last year, partially or fully covering temporary liquidity needs in the period of significant decrease in demand and revenue. Outside of the government support programs, the structure of market lending did not change significantly in 2020 compared to 2019. Banks prefer to lend to more productive companies: we see that the volume of credits to high productive firms was at the same level as in 2019. This means that efficient firms that should be drivers of economic recovery did not have problems with access to credit in 2020.

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Agroforestry as a Biodiversity Conservation Tool in the Atlantic Forest? Motivations and Limitations for Small-Scale Farmers to Implement Agroforestry Systems in North-Eastern Brazil

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su11246932 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (24) ◽

pp. 6932

Author(s):

Mauricio Sagastuy ◽

Torsten Krause

Keyword(s):

Atlantic Forest ◽

Technical Assistance ◽

Climatic Variability ◽

Agricultural Landscapes ◽

Small Scale ◽

Soil Productivity ◽

Agricultural Crop ◽

Conventional Agriculture ◽

Small Scale Farmers ◽

Agroforestry Practices

Agroforestry practices support agricultural resilience against climatic variability, increase soil productivity, can diversify and increase farmers’ incomes, and support native fauna in agricultural landscapes. However, many farmers are still reluctant to implement agroforestry practices. We distributed questionnaires to 75 agroforestry and 64 “conventional agriculture” small-scale farmers working in the northeastern region of the Atlantic Forest to identify the motivations and limitations to implement agroforestry practices. We reveal the four main reasons why farmers worked with agroforestry: Higher income generation (89%), diversification of the production system (86%), increase in the land’s quality and productivity (86%), and increase in self-sufficiency (82%). The three most common mentioned reasons for conventional agriculture farmers to not shift to agroforestry practices were: Uncertainty if the system will work (62%), reduction in yield of the main agricultural crop (43%), and a lack of models and knowledge in the region (41%). Agroforestry in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest region can support native fauna, but farmers need to be educated about agroforestry practices and encouraged to switch from conventional agriculture to agroforestry through an increase in available technical assistance and capacitation/training in agroforestry practices.

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Campesinos and Conservation in the Central Andes: Indigenous Herding and Conservation of the Vicuña

Environmental Conservation ◽

10.1017/s0376892900035359 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 13 (4) ◽

pp. 311-318 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Wayne Bernhardson

Keyword(s):

Indigenous Peoples ◽

Land Tenure ◽

Wildlife Management ◽

Technical Assistance ◽

Central Andes ◽

Short Term ◽

Local Patterns ◽

Local Residents ◽

Economic Future

Efforts to protect the wild Vicuña, an endangered relative of the domesticated Llama and Alpaca of the central Andes, and to increase the species' numbers, have been more successful in achieving technical wildlife management goals than in complementing agro-pastoral activities of the indigenous peoples of the region. In both Pampa Galeras National Reserve in Peru and in Lauca National Park in Chile, lack of consultation with native pastoralists, whose lands the reserves occupy, reflects weak commitment to broader social and economic goals on the part of national authorities, as well as the inadequacy of international technical assistance in involving local communities in such projects.Specifically, those projects have neglected to consider the importance of local patterns of land tenure, which are only in small part communal, and of economic differentiation with those communities. At the same time, authorities have controlled or monitored access to such subsistence resources as pasture and fuel for local residents, while failing to offer short-term alternatives for economic opportunity. This is in contrast to the free hand enjoyed by energy and agricultural irrigation projects such as those which benefit Chile's Atacama port of Arica. Continuation of such policies jeopardizes long-term success of wildlife protection as well as the economic future of the region's human inhabitants.

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