Unraveling farmers' interrelated adaptation and mitigation adoption decisions under perceived climate change risks

Abstract

Climate change poses a risk to agricultural activity. Understanding farmers' behaviors is increasingly important for managing climate risks and improving their adaptive capacity. This study aims to identify the key risk-related drivers influencing several adaptation and mitigation strategies by adopting various Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) technologies to reduce climate change vulnerability. We investigate the interrelated nature of the adoption of CSA technologies related to soil fertility, soil conservation, agroforestry, agro-advisory apps, and alternative coffee farming practices. To explore the role of the perceived risks related to CSA technology adoption, we constructed an extended model that combines protection motivation theory, perceived farmers' adoption risks and social and demographic determinants. We collected empirical data from 519 coffee farmers in Costa Rica and analyzed the data through a multivariate probit technique. The analysis reveals how the influence of perceived climate risks severity, perceived vulnerability, response efficacy, self-efficacy, and perceived cost changes according to the CSA technology. As for the perceived adoption risks, we show that the adoption likelihood of CSA technologies focused on mitigation decreases with increasing perceived adoption risk. Other determinants, such as the number of coffee buyers and the farmers' membership in an organization, steer the adoption of soil fertility practices, agroforestry, and agro-advisory mobile apps. Main theoretical implications include the integration of the CSA adoption risk-related perceptions to the protection motivation theory, since it reflects on farmers' fear of potential losses or additional costs associated with implementing these practices. The finding gives a nuanced explanation of farmers' decisions under pressing climate change threats. Practical implications for increasing CSA adoption are that CSA promotion programs must consider that farmers see CSA technologies as interrelated in their adoption decisions, meaning that more fruitful synergies could be promoted by acknowledging the bundled adoption of multiple CSA technologies. Thus, promoting a mix of CSA technologies and practices is essential for achieving resilience while increasing productivity.