“We found that subtle differences in a variety of characteristics of farm systems were associated with differences in farmers’ perceptions of the difficulty of changing practices, and with subsequent adoption.”
Introduction
The adoption of new practices is vital for agriculture to respond productively to climate change, market forces and community pressures. One of the strongest influences on farmers’ adoption of practices is their perceptions of the difficulty of changing practice as these affect the benefits and costs of change. We contend that fine-grained differences in the characteristics of farm systems result in differences in farmers’ perceptions of the difficulty of changing practices, giving rise to the differential adoption of practices by farmers. The extent to which differences in the characteristics of farm systems lead to diversity in farmers’ perceptions of the difficulty of change, and how those perceptions translate into differences in adoption, has rarely been explored.