Abstract
This paper investigates the relationship between the use of digital and non-digital sources of information on sustainable farming practices, institutional pressure and adoption of such practices by farmers in Brazilian semi-arid lands. The research uses a model based on the theory of reasoned action (TRA) and the institutional theory. Our results for a sample of 100 Brazilian farmers show that non-digital sources of information and ‘Coercive’ and ‘Normative’ pressures have a positive impact on farmers’ attitude towards and actual adoption of sustainable farming practices. However, digital sources of information such as TV and Radio do not play a significant role. In addition, pro-environmental attitude drives sustainable behaviour through the adoption of three out of the five sustainable farming practices investigated. Research and policy implications are also discussed.
Highlights
Food production and sustainability have recently been the subject of several studies.1 Unsustainability issues in food production include loss of soil health, pollution associated with pesticides and fertilizer runoff, and greenhouse gas emissions which contribute to climate change (Nelson and Coe, 2014)
This paper investigates the relationship between the use of digital and non-digital sources of information on sustainable farming practices, institutional pressure, and adoption of such practices by farmers in Brazilian semi-arid lands
Following the above discussion and based on theory of reasoned action and institutional theory, we propose that individual factors such as farmer’s attitude, awareness of environmental issues, age of the farmer and education level (Mettepenningen et al, 2013; Baumgart-Getz et al, 2012), social factors such as institutional pressure and informational factors (Tingey-Holyoak and Pisaniello, 2017) including electronic and non-electronic information sources influence adoption of sustainable farming practices by farmers (Figure 1)
Summary
Food production and sustainability have recently been the subject of several studies. Unsustainability issues in food production include loss of soil health, pollution associated with pesticides and fertilizer runoff, and greenhouse gas emissions which contribute to climate change (Nelson and Coe, 2014). There is a need for further in-depth research on how farmers can be encouraged to adopt sustainable agriculture practices, in the context of small farms (Zeweld et al, 2017). We present empirical evidence of how Electronic and non-Electronic information sources and different forms of institutional pressure can change the environmental attitude and behavior of farmers in semi-arid regions in Brazil. The knowledge of sociocultural, economic and institutional factors that lead to biases in perceptions can help to integrate climate communication into adaptation research for making sense of climate impacts and responses at farm level” (Nguyen et al, 2016).
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