Factors Influencing the Adoption of Sustainable Agricultural Practices: A Systematic Literature Review and Lesson Learned for India

Abstract

In the light of growing concern over the sustainability of the agricultural system, the sustainability of input-intensive agricultural systems becomes questionable due to severe environmental challenges associated with it, for instance, overexploitation of natural resources, deteriorating biodiversity, adverse impact on human health. These challenges have led to increased awareness and a need to switch from input-intensive agriculture to sustainable agriculture. The sustainability of agricultural systems can be improved by adopting various sustainable agricultural practices (SAPs) like crop rotation, intercropping, organic farming, integrated pest management, zero tillage. However, the adoption rate of these practices is meager due to various factors. Hence, the present study aims to review the literature from the world to determine the critical factors in adopting SAPs and accordingly explore the potential implications for the Indian context. The study applies the vote-counting method to synthesize evidence-based 30 studies from 18 countries, focusing on developing nations. The findings suggest that the rate of adoption depends on a range of factors: socio-economic, biophysical, institutional, financial, technical, and psychological, but the rate of adoption is low. Thus, it is imperative to understand these essential factors comprehensively for successful future adoption strategies.

Keywords:

• Sustainability
• factors
• adoption
• sustainable agricultural practices
• organic farming
• systematic review

Declaration

Funding

No funding was received to assist with the preparation of this manuscript.

Conflict of Interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

Data Availability Statement - Code Availability Statement

Not applicable (Munasinghe, 2019)

Authors Contribution

For this manuscript, literature search and data analysis has been done by Priya, and Professor S.P. Singh ha critically revised the work.