A Systematic Review of Factors Influencing Farmers’ Adoption of Organic Farming

Abstract

Understanding the evidence-based factors that influence the adoption of organic farming yields benefits in terms of managing said adoption effectively. We searched relevant articles published in databases including Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, Google Scholar, and Google. The inclusion criteria were as follows: original article; published in journals, proceedings, or dissertations; full article publication; published between 1999 and 2021; focusing on assessing the adoption of organic farming or conversion to organic farming; published in English; included data analyzed via correlation coefficient analysis, regression analysis, or discriminant analysis. Out of the 50 articles identified, 33 studies described findings associated with farmer and household factors, 32 described psychobehavioral and psychosocial factors, 36 assessed farming factors, and 33 analyzed supportive factors. The literature provides evidence that relevant factors include the following: (1) farmer and household factors (i.e., gender, off-farm income, and level of education); (2) psycho-behavioral and psychosocial factors (i.e., positive attitude, normative and moral obligations); (3) farming factors (i.e., organic farm experience, production cost, and farm ownership); (4) supportive factors (i.e., training, support of technology, organic farmer neighbors, information acquisition, membership of association, and extension contacts). To promote the adoption of organic farming, extension agents play a vital role in the provision of information via training and the encouragement of conventional farmers to shift towards organic agriculture. The target groups that have the greatest potential for the adoption of organic farming are young farmers, females, individuals who have ownership of their farm, those with a high level of education, and farmers with off-farm income. Farm associations also play a vital role in the sharing of experience and in increasing bargaining power. Support by the government in terms of resources, credit, markets, and subsidy is also relevant in motivating organic farming adoption. Therefore, three sectors, extension agents, farm associations, and the government, are key drivers for the sustainable adoption of organic farming.

Factors Determining Rice Farm Households’ Adoption of Organic Farming in Taiwan

“…(3) attitudinal or psychological factors; and (4) social capital and learning. A similar categorization of the evidence-based factors affecting farmers' organic farming adoption decision can be found in the most recent reviews, e.g., [1].…”

“…Most of the extant research found the probability of organic farming adoption is higher for farmers with higher educational levels, e.g., [4,5,8]. The two recent review articles, [1,12], also suggested the same conclusion after a systematic review. However, in some study of West Africa, farmers with lower educational levels were found be more inclined to adopting organic cotton farming practices [10], while the effect of education was found to be insignificant in explaining the adoption of organic horticultural techniques in the UK [3].…”

“…Farmers' socio-economic characteristics identified as the factors influencing the adoption of organic farming include the farmer's gender, age and education, [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. It was found that female farmers are more inclined to adopting organic farming [1,2,5,7,9,10]. Possible explanations for the significant gender differences in practicing organic agriculture found that female farmers are more inclined to adopting organic farming [1,2,5,7,9,10].…”

“…It was found that female farmers are more inclined to adopting organic farming [1,2,5,7,9,10]. Possible explanations for the significant gender differences in practicing organic agriculture found that female farmers are more inclined to adopting organic farming [1,2,5,7,9,10]. Possible explanations for the significant gender differences in practicing organic agriculture may be due to different value orientations held by females and males [13] and the fact that females' bond with Nature is inherently stronger than that of males [14].…”

“…Farmers' socio-economic characteristics identified as the factors influencing the adoption of organic farming include the farmer's gender, age and education, [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. It was found that female farmers are more inclined to adopting organic farming [1,2,5,7,9,10].…”