A model of farmers intentions towards organic farming: A case study on rice farming in Thailand

The role of peer influence and norms in organic farming adoption: Accounting for farmers' heterogeneity

Understanding the evidence-based elements that impact the adoption of organic farming is advantageous for the proper management of such adoption. Our research examines the influence of socio-psychological factors in promoting organic agriculture in Vietnam, including peer influence, social norms and personal norms. Cluster analysis is applied to account for individuals' heterogeneity in environmental beliefs regarding adopting organic farming. We find that peer influence, such as the frequency of communication and the existence of organic farming neighbors, are critical components of organic agriculture. Moreover, social and personal norms could also play a key role in incentivizing environmentally concerned farmers to convert to organic farming. Therefore, policymakers should encourage neighborhood collaboration, establish a channel for farmers to promote interaction between farmers and promote farmers' recognition of the importance of organic agriculture to effectively drive them toward the sustainable adoption of organic farming.

The Monetary Value of Corporate Social Responsibility: The Impact of Tea Trees Growing Project between Corporates and Taiwan’s Aboriginal Farmers on Consumers

The first hypothesis of this study is to dissect the factors that impact consumers’ preference toward a specific corporate social responsibility (CSR) project via the framework of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). The second hypothesis is to evaluate a monetary value for CSR among consumers through their WTP. The willingness to pay (WTP) in relation to those influential factors is used to represent the monetary value of CSR for the tea tree growing project implemented by corporates among indigenous tribal farmers in Taiwan. The components of CSR covered in this study are product safety, economic security for contractual farmers, the protection of the environment, and the conservation of ecology. Such efforts encompass the economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities of CSR. The corresponding highest and lowest monetary values of CSR per hectare of tea trees are USD 92,232 and USD 141,762, respectively. The overall average monetary value of CSR per hectare is USD 118,035. These values represent the specific amounts that a corporation can potentially contribute to society when it contracts tea production to aboriginal farmers.

Influences of Green Eating Behaviors Underlying the Extended Theory of Planned Behavior: A Study of Market Segmentation and Purchase Intention

Green food has been introduced into the market for several years. Nevertheless, most Thai consumers do not commonly purchase green food in their daily routine. This research article aims to identify the market segments and significant factors affecting green food purchase intention in Thailand based on the theory of planned behavior. It employed a sample of 458 green food consumers in five regions of Thailand. Based on the Food-Related Lifestyle model, we used cluster analysis to classify the market segments. Additionally, we employed a multi-group structural equation modeling technique to explore and compare customers’ behaviors in different segments. The results demonstrated two primary market segments for green food products, including (1) non-green consumers and (2) green consumers. The findings indicate that green consumers’ self-realization related to environmental issues positively affects their attitude and purchase intention, while non-green consumers reveal none of these relationships. Surprisingly, social norms related to green food consumption influence non-green consumers’ attitudes toward green food more than it does toward green consumers. This research paper enlarges the understanding of Thailand’s green food market regarding the market segments (non-green and green consumers). Furthermore, it points out implications on how marketing practitioners may penetrate those segments.

Consumer perception of attributes of organic food in Italy: A CUB model study

Organic food, consumers and their buying behaviour are well examined fields of research, although there is a lack of consistent findings on consumers' perception about organic food's quality, in terms of healthiness, safety, and environmental sustainability, and on determinants of perceived quality. This study investigates how consumers perceive the quality of organic food, in terms of environmental sustainability, safety, and healthiness. The study also analyses how and to what extent perceived quality of organic food is influenced by the presence of information related to quality on food products' labels and consumers' socio-demographic profile. A survey has been conducted on a convenience sample of Italian consumers, recruited through a snowball sampling technique. An approach based on a Combination of Uniform and shifted Binomial random variables, named CUB model, is adopted to analyse consumers' perceptions in terms of two latent components, feeling and uncertainty. The CUB model approach is suitable for analyses that involve consumers perception. The results suggest that consumers perceive safety of organic food better than healthiness and environmentally sustainable attributes. Findings also highlight that the presence of specific information on food's label contributes to perceive organic food as healthier, safe, and environmentally sustainable: the more the details on food labels, the higher the consumers' perception. Furthermore, consumers' socio-demographic profile plays a significant role: males and females have a different perception of organic food and younger consumers tend to be more prone to buy and consume organic product.

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Consumers are more confident with healthiness and sustainability of organic food.

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Males and females have a different perception of organic food.

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Food labels increase the perception of organic food as healthy, safe, sustainable.

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More details on labels of organic food enhance consumers' perception.

Effect of agricultural subsidies on the use of chemical fertilizer

Agricultural subsidies lead to changes in the use of chemical fertilizer by farmers. Using data from a household survey conducted annually by the Rural Economy Research Center of the Ministry of Agriculture of China from 2014 to 2018, Control Function (CF) approach and Heteroskedasticity-based identification strategy were employed to analyze the impact of agricultural subsidies on chemical fertilizer use by rice farmers. After addressing the problem of endogeneity, we found that agricultural subsidies have a significantly negative impact on the use of chemical fertilizer. Precisely, every 100% increase in agricultural subsidies would result in an average decrease of 3.4% in chemical fertilizer use. In addition, results of heterogeneity analysis showed that agricultural subsidies had a stronger negative impact on fertilizer use as rice-planting experience increases. But the ability of rice-planting management and off-farm labor within household could reduce this negative impact. We also found that the effect of arable land productivity conservation subsidies policy was short-lived. Furthermore, based on the frame of structural equation model (SEM), the results of mediation analysis showed that agricultural machine and rice-planting area had partial mediation of 5.3% and 41%, respectively. It implied that agricultural subsidies reduced fertilizer use by promoting the adoption of agricultural techniques and expanding the planting area. In brief, agricultural subsidies had both technical effect and scale effect. But the mediating effect of household income was not significant. This study is intended to assist the concerned authority and agriculture sector to understand the positive role of agricultural subsidies in sustainable production, and provides some feasible policy proposals.

Zig-zag technology adoption behavior among brick kiln owners in Pakistan

This study uses the theory of planned behavior to examine the individual's intentions and zig-zag kiln technology adoption attitude in responding to carbon emissions in Pakistan. This study is based on cross-sectional data and a representative sample of 335 brick kilns owners from 11 districts of Punjab province of Pakistan is collected. Partial least squares structural equation modeling technique was used for the analysis. Results depicted that environmental concern and self-efficacy have a significant influence on attitude toward sustainable technology while subjective norms have a significant effect on intentions toward zig-zag kiln technology. A 1% increase in environmental concern and self-efficacy increases sustainable environmental technology by 24% and 58%, respectively. Furthermore, perceived behavioral control and intentions also significantly impact adoption attitude, and a 1% increase in perceived behavioral control and intentions increase the zig-zag kiln adoption attitude by 68% and 30%, respectively. Results depicted that adoption attitude is significantly determined by these explanatory variables. The study's findings provided new evidence for the government to place more emphasis on enhancing kiln owners' attitudes, social norms, and perceived behavioral control, which would lead towards the adoption of this new technique.

Investigating factors influencing tourists' environmentally responsible behavior with extended theory of planned behavior for coastal tourism in Thailand

Marine litter is one of the most significant marine environmental pollutants in coastal destinations around the world. Tourists' improper behavior in disposing of litter is a major contributor. The formation of tourists' environmentally responsible behavior (ERB) has thus become important in preventing and mitigating marine litter problems. This study aims to investigate factors affecting tourists' ERB using the extended theory of planned behavior (TPB). A questionnaire survey was conducted on Libong Island, Thailand between December 2019 and March 2020. A total of 876 respondents were surveyed. The empirical findings show that extended TPB with environmental awareness and environmental background can explain tourists' ERB. Recommendations for the formation of coastal tourists' ERB include (i) raising public awareness; (ii) promoting government administration; and (iii) elevating the quality of coastal attractions.

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

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.

Life Cycle Assessment of Thai Hom Mali Rice to Support the Policy Decision on Organic Farming Area Expansion

Thailand has a strategic national policy to increase organic rice farming. This study firstly applied Life Cycle Assessment for evaluating the quantitative environmental impacts at the regional and national levels to facilitate the national policy decision on the expansion of organic rice cultivation areas. The impact categories of interest included global warming, terrestrial acidification, freshwater eutrophication, terrestrial ecotoxicity, and freshwater ecotoxicity, and the life cycle impact assessment method applied was ReCiPe. The results showed that the life cycle environmental impacts from organic rice cultivation in the nine provinces in the North were lower than those from the 12 provinces in the Northeast, due mainly to the higher yields and lower use of fertilizers in the former. The methane emissions in the North (11,147 kg CO2e/ha) were similar to those in the Northeast (11,378 kg CO2e/ha). However, nitrous oxide emissions in the Northeast were higher than in the North due to the higher amounts of fertilizer used. If Thailand expands the rice farming by 50% in the North and by 50% in the Northeast, the greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced from 11,400 to 11,100 kg CO2e/ha, but the impacts of terrestrial acidification, freshwater eutrophication, terrestrial ecotoxicity, and freshwater ecotoxicity could be increased by 0.0257 kg PO4e (95%), 0.508 kg 1,4-DBe (53%), and 33.1 kg 1,4-DBe (17%), respectively. To reduce the global warming as well as other environmental impacts, Thailand should expand rice farming areas to the North. This information could be useful for supporting the policy decisions on which areas the organic rice farming should be expanded in to minimize the potential life cycle environmental impacts.