Farmers’ intention towards intercropping adoption: the role of socioeconomic and behavioural drivers

ABSTRACT

The adoption of intercropping, a sustainable agricultural technology, is limited in Europe. This paper investigates factors driving the intention to intercrop in Sweden. Factors included in the analysis are participation in private certification schemes, interactions with peers and agricultural advisors, attitude, knowledge, innovativeness, perceived intercropping attributes and perceived behavioural control. The first two reflect potential socioeconomic determinants and the last four are possible behavioural drivers. For the first time, the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and diffusion of innovation theory were integrated to understand farmers’ adoption of sustainable farming practices like intercropping . Structural equation modelling was applied to understand the behavioural drivers, whereas logit regression was employed to identify the socioeconomic determinant of adoption intention. The paper highlights the important role of knowledge in fostering intercropping adoption. Knowledge was associated with innovativeness (B = 0.18, p < 0.001) and influenced perceived attribute (B = 0.395, p < 0.001) and attitude (B = 0.268, p < 0.001) towards intercropping. Sufficient knowledge strengthens farmers’ confidence in implementing intercropping and subsequently facilitates adoption intention (B = 0.287, p < 0.05). Participation in private certification schemes and interactions with peers, a bonding social capital, also stimulates adoption intention (β = 0.91 and β = 0.70, p < 0.05). Policy implications to support intercropping were discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Intercropping
• agricultural innovations
• knowledge
• social interaction
• theory of planned behaviour
• diffusion of innovation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data will be provided upon request.

Ethical statement

This study involves human participation but it is exempted from ethical approval because it uses a survey as a means of data collection and the survey had no sensitive information, according to the Swedish regulation on research ethics. Consent forms were given to participants and it was clearly stated that farmers’ participation was voluntary.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development [grant number FORMAS 2020-01099].