Farmer Adoption of Climate-Smart Practices Is Driven by Farm Characteristics, Information Sources, and Practice Benefits and Challenges

Abstract

Agriculture plays an important role in mitigation and adaptation to climate change. Yet, advances in climate-smart agriculture require a better understanding of farmer adoption. This exploratory paper uncovered differences that distinguish High, Moderate, and Low adopters of climate-smart practices. Our study utilized 952 in-person surveys of California farmers with a focus on mitigation and adaptation practices, along with farm characteristics, information sources, and practice benefits and challenges. Specifically, farmers with larger parcels were more likely to be High adopters, and farmers with access to only one water source were more likely to be Low adopters. There was no significant difference found between Moderate and High adopters’ use of any information sources. The ranking of different information sources changed between groups. Furthermore, there was no significant difference in the rate of Moderate and High adopters’ consideration of practice benefits. All groups identified practice uncertainty as the greatest challenge, with a significant difference between Moderate and High adopters. Our results demonstrate where differences occur between farmer adopter groups and by extension provide insights into where to target outreach efforts to promote the adoption of climate-smart practices in California agriculture.