| Bangladesh faces a severe challenge in ensuring food security for its vast population.Natural calamities and climate change pose a significant threat to the sustainability of human lives and livelihoods.Conservation Agriculture(CA)is an alternative to the conventional farming system,which,according to existing evidence,has the potential to mitigate the adverse effect of climate change and improve soil quality and crop yield.Against this backdrop,various agencies have commissioned several initiatives to accelerate the adoption of CA among farmers in Bangladesh.After introducing CA in the country’s northern parts,national and international projects offered various kinds of support to the farmers intending to spread its practice.Despite numerous promotional activities,CA’s adoption rate and continuation remain much lower than expected among Bangladeshi farmers.The studies on CA in Bangladesh have mainly focused on economic and farming factors without considering the psychological drivers influencing farmers’ behaviors towards its practice.This research undertook a technologyadoption perspective to identify and study the socio-physiological factors that influence various constructs and characteristics of farmers’ behavioral sustainability regarding the adoption and continuation of CA in Bangladesh.A set of theoretical components of technology adoption and related concepts,namely the Theory of Planned Behavior(TPB),Diffusion of Innovations(DOI),Technological Acceptance Model(TAM),practical difficulties,potential constraints,and willingness to adopt(WTA)formulated the conceptual framework and categorically addressed five research questions.Fieldwork conducted in 2019 collected the required data for this study.Based on the list of farmers provided by the Regional Wheat Research Centre(RWRC)and Regional Agricultural Research Station(RARS),the data collection was carried out with a cross-sectional questionnaire-led survey of N= 421(201 CA adopting and 220 non-CA adopting)farmers from July to September.Three northern districts,namely Rajshahi,Rangpur,and Dinajpur,were selected based on the concentration and availability of CA farmers.The selection of these study areas and the respective sample households followed a sequential multi-stage sampling technique.Five specific objectives outline this dissertation.First,this study examined farmers’ attitude toward CA by applying an integrated model of DOI and TAM.The cross-sectional survey conducted among 201 CA adopters generated the data.Including both reflective and formative measurements,a variance-based Structural Equation Modelling(PLS-SEM)approach tested the model.Results specify that the constructs of the proposed integrated model can explain a more significant variation in attitudes and intentions.The relationship between Relative Advantage and Attitude(β = 0.337)is stronger than any other included constructs.The effect of both Low Complexity and Compatibility on Attitude is positive and significant.Similarly,the relationship between Attitude and Intention is positive and significant(β = 0.699).Importance Performance Map Analysis(IPMA)reveals that policymakers must consider all constructs with a particular focus on farmers’ attitudes.Second,to further investigate the behavioral intention of 201 CA adopters towards conservation agriculture,an extended version of TPB was adopted to explore the factors affecting the intention of farmers to continue CA for the following year.Three sociopsychological constructs-Attitudes,Subjective Norm(SN),and Perceived Behavioral Control(PBC)from TPB and two novel constructs – Knowledge and Perceived Climatic Threats of Conventional Farming(PCTCV),formed the extended version of the theory.The results of Structural Equation Modelling(SEM)demonstrate that Attitude,SN,PBC,Knowledge,and PCTCV are positively significant in explaining farmers’ intentions to continue CA.Findings also indicate that farmers’ knowledge has the highest total impact(β = 0.849)while Attitude holds the highest direct effect on Intention(β= 0.421).Third,theoretical and empirical scholarship further indicates that CA practice can have up to seven components.Based on these components,the extent of CA practice and the difficulties associated with these components were analyzed.Results reveal that among those seven components,minimum tillage was followed by most responding farmers.Lack of and access to machinery was reported to be the most critical difficulties faced by the adopters.In addition,a three-gap model was used to determine the farmers know,know-can and can-do gap and the results project that access to CA machinery(β =-0.721;β =-0.151;β =-0.581)and average income(β =-0.474;β =-0.215;β =-0.720)of the participants significantly influence these gaps.Fourth,a triple-hurdle model analyzed the data to explore various factors that impact the willingness of non-CA farmers to adopt CA.The initial two stages involved Probit,while the last stage included a Tobit model.Results reveal that access to relevant extension services(β =1.414;β = 1.869;β = 11.101)and CA training facilities(β = 1.379;β = 1.422;β = 7.384)(i.e.,demonstrations,discussions,workshops,and exercises)were significant across all three stages.Finally,the study explored the perceived constraints that explain why,despite observing the benefits of CA,the farmers did not adopt this farming system.The perceived constraints were analyzed to discover statistically significant associations of these constraints with farmers’ socio-economic and demographic characteristics.The results of multiple regression analysis show that formal education,training experience,access to machinery,and farm size were significant determinants against the perceived constraints,in which farm size(β =-0.391)was a key factor.This study concludes that readily available extension services and training facilities can positively impact farmers’ attitudes,knowledge and perceived relative advantage regarding conservation agriculture.Interventions aiming to promote its adoption and related sustainable behavior among farmers must also ensure machinery supply.Subsidies and financial support for small farms provided by public or private investments can accelerate CA adoption among non-adopters.Public policies aiming to expand this climate-smart agricultural practice must be aware of these factors and the local needs and contexts.Further research can employ qualitative investigation to explore more profound and context-specific insights regarding farmers’ behavioral sustainability. |
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