Driving mechanism for farmers' acceptance of climate-smart agriculture

Abstract

Climate-smart agriculture is considered a socially beneficial and environmentally friendly agricultural production mode to cope with the impact of climate change and extreme weather. While it has the potential to promote sustainable agriculture and food security, the broad implementation of climate-smart agriculture highly depends on farmers' attitudes and preferences. This study aims to identify and analyze the driving mechanisms behind farmers' acceptance of climate-smart agriculture. To achieve this, we establish a research model to explore farmers' acceptance of climate-smart agriculture. A cross-sectional questionnaire investigation is conducted to obtain research data in rural China. Partial least squares structural equation modeling is employed to test the theoretical research model's validity. The results reveal that 89.2 % of the variance in farmers' willingness to adopt climate-smart agriculture is interpreted by the proposed research model. The findings highlight that egoistic factors significantly impact farmers' willingness to use climate-smart agriculture more than altruistic ones. The path analysis indicates that awareness of consequences and perceived value exhibit the strongest direct impacts on farmers' behavioral intentions. The total effect of technology-task fit on farmers' acceptance of climate-smart agriculture is greater than that of awareness of consequences. Theoretical findings and practical suggestions are also provided for promoting and implementing climate-smart agriculture.