Farm types and farmer motivations to adapt: Implications for design of sustainable agricultural interventions in the rubber plantations of South West China

Abstract

Tropical land use is one of the leading causes of global environmental change. Sustainable agricultural development aims to reduce the negative environmental impacts of tropical land use whilst enhancing the wellbeing of the small holder farmers residing in those areas. Interventions with this goal are typically designed by scientists educated in the Western tradition, and often achieve lower than desired uptake by small holder farmers. We build on work done in farm type classification and studies of factors that influence adaptation, trialling a suite of household survey questions to elucidate the motivational factors that influence a farmer's willingness to adapt to external change. Based on a sample of 1,015 households in the rubber growing region of Xishuangbanna, Southwest China, we found that farm types based on structural characteristics (e.g. crops, livelihoods) could not be used to accurately predict farmers' motivations to adapt. Amongst all six farm types identified, the full range of motivational typologies were found. We found six motivational types, from most to least likely to adapt, named: Aspirational Innovators, Conscientious, Copy Cats, Incentive-centric, Well Settled, and Change Resistant. These groups roughly corresponded with those identified in literature regarding diffusion of innovations, but such classifications are rarely used in development literature. We predict that only one third of the population would be potentially willing to trial a new intervention, and recommend that those sectors of the population should be identified and preferentially targeted by development programs. Such an approach requires validation that these motivational typologies accurately predict real behaviourperhaps through a panel survey approach. Dedicated data gathering is required, beyond what is usually carried out for ex-ante farm typologies, but with some refinements of the methodology presented here the process need not be onerous. An improved suite of questions to appraise farmers' motivations might include value orientations, life satisfaction, and responses to various scenarios, all phrased to be locally appropriate, with a scoring system that uses the full range of potential scores and a minimum of follow up and peripheral questions.

Improving Assessments of the Three Pillars of Climate Smart Agriculture: Current Achievements and Ideas for the Future

“…Such a grouping can explain to a large extent whether farmers are willing to innovate and adopt (new) interventions (e.g., Fraval et al, 2018). Hammond et al (2017b) showed that around 50% of the farmers in southern China were not interested in new production intensification options, and simply wanted to continue with their farm in a "business as usual" approach. Such classifications of interested and less interested farmers is essential for the efficient targeting of different adaptation options and for helping development agencies to develop better approaches to roll out innovations.…”

Human-Elephant Conflicts and Villagers’ Attitudes and Knowledge in the Xishuangbanna Nature Reserve, China

“…In recent years, due to the rising market prices of rubber, tea, and other cash crops, local villagers have vigorously developed plantations, resulting in serious destruction of forest resources and rapid reduction of forest area. The area where rubber is suitable for planting is generally less than 1000 m above sea level [56], and this area is usually the most suitable living place for Asian elephants [57]. A large number of reclamation and cultivation have led to the continuous decrease in the habitat and food sources for Asian elephants, thus forcing the Asian elephants to go out of the forest to seek food in the surrounding agricultural land, forming a situation in which humans and elephants compete against each other for living space.…”

Intensification Benefit Index: How Much Can Rural Households Benefit From Agricultural Intensification?

“…In reality, there is a tension between these global goals and the short-term, local needs and aspirations of rural smallholder households in SSA because small farms limit households’ ability to move out of poverty (this paper) or to achieve local food security (Frelat et al , 2016). Recently, Hammond et al (2017) reported that only about one-third of rubber farmers in a study in South West China could be classed as keen to innovate and try out new practices. Given the characteristics of smallholder rural households described in this paper, improved technologies, though effective, might not be attractive to them and they may not be particularly keen on SI.…”