Character strengths and sustainable technology adoption by smallholder farmers

Abstract

Sustainable food systems are required to feed a growing world population. Smallholder farmers, who produce a significant share of the food supply in many developing countries, can play a crucial role in applying such systems. In agriculture, various innovative technologies promise to have a significant part in securing a sustainable future. Clearly, however, before new technologies can benefit their users, they must first be adopted. Why do most smallholders avoid using modern cultivation technologies? Rather than focusing on socio-economic geography-related factors and information gaps, we offer a new perspective, suggesting that personal variables, such as character strengths, prompt the adoption of sustainable technologies. We put this hypothesis to an empirical test in a large-scale field study of drip irrigation (DI) adoption in Senegal. Data were collected by face-to-face questionnaires. A binary logistic regression analysis of the data obtained from 335 different plots in Senegal, showed that a significant connection existed between two character strengths, creativity and judgment, and DI adoption. Along with its theoretical and empirical contribution, the value of this study lies in its practical implications: The research focuses on variables that are malleable and likely to be influenced by policy tools and education.

Do smallholder farmers belong to the same adopter category? An assessment of smallholder farmers innovation adopter categories in Ghana

“…This implies that highly educated, less educated and uneducated farmers can be either innovative or less innovative. Contrary to this result, research by (Ruzzante et al, 2021;Bukchin and Kerret, 2020;Ntshangase et al, 2018) found farmer education to significantly influencing their innovativeness. The present finding does not downplay the importance of formal education in innovation adoption; however, it opens a debate that other factors also influence farmers' innovation decisions, and for that matter, education alone cannot be used as a basis to conclude that one farmer is more innovative than the other.…”

“…A study by Diiro and Sam (2015) found that farmers in Uganda who earned higher income and had more assets applied new technologies (seed varieties) on their farms more than farmers whose incomes were lower. Similarly, Bukchin and Kerret (2020) found that higher annual income increased farmers' drip irrigation adoption. The finding from this study, therefore, adds to the academic debate that higher annual income of farmers directly increases their innovativeness; hence, our results in Table 3 , showing a higher number of smallholder farmers with lower annual income, could explain why many smallholder farmers are less innovative (see Table 4 and Figure 2 ).…”

The Determinants of Adoption and Intensity of Climate-Smart Agricultural Practices among Smallholder Maize Farmers

“…Poisson is a process of satisfying the assumptions of the probability distribution of the number of occurrences of the event in a fixed time interval [33]. Studies by Ojo et al [29] and Bukchin et al [34] have stated that farmers usually weigh the technology's benefits before adopting it. The study used the PRM because diagnostic tests revealed the absence of overdispersion and under dispersion.…”

Implementation of Rice and Maize Cultivation Technology Based on Agronomic Effectiveness

“…Li et al [23] argued that, this was partly due to the lack of motivation of farmers. Thus the approach needed relating to the adoption of sustainable technology is an extension based on the strength of the character of farmers [24]. From an economic aspect, several indicators must be met for a technology to be adopted sustainably.…”