Drivers of farmers' adoption and continuation of climate-smart agricultural practices. A study from northeastern Italy

• Published in: The Science of the total environment Vol. 710; p. 136345
• Main Authors: Pagliacci, Francesco, Defrancesco, Edi, Mozzato, Daniele, Bortolini, Lucia, Pezzuolo, Andrea, Pirotti, Francesco, Pisani, Elena, Gatto, Paola
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 25-03-2020
• Subjects: AES; Climate-smart agriculture; CSA; Innovation adoption; Poisson and Logit models; Spatial diffusion processes; CSA; Climate-smart agriculture; Innovation adoption; Spatial diffusion processes; Poisson and Logit models; AES
• ISSN: 0048-9697; 1879-1026
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.136345

The EU rural development policy has addressed challenges related to climate change in agriculture by introducing public voluntary schemes, which financially support the adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices. Several factors, most of which are non-financial ones, drive adoption and continuation of these schemes by farmers. Despite the importance of these factors, only a few studies explore their role in the European context. This paper contributes to filling this gap from a twofold perspective. First, it investigates the role of the farming factors, technology accessibility, environmental features, policy design and social expertise at the territorial level on early adoption. Second, it sheds light on farmers' attitudes and motivations and on social pressure on their decision to continue or discontinue the practices, by surveying a sample of early adopters. Three schemes for the Veneto region rural development programme are considered: no-tillage, fertiliser reduction, and water and fertiliser reduction. The results highlight that non-financial factors should be considered in order to design more effective schemes to prompt farmers to adopt and continue such practices over the long run. The paper also stresses the need to complement financial support with proactive information-based instruments.
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•Several non-financial factors affect climate smart agriculture practices adoption•Continuation of CSA practices assures long-term resilience to climate change•A farm-level survey explores motivations and attitudes affecting continuation•Policymakers should leverage social endorsement to nudge adoption and continuation