Elton Li

ABSTRACT Climate change is a pressing concern for the agricultural sector of both developed and developing countries due to the heavy reliance of this primary sector on climate conditions. However, little research effort has gone into understanding underlying cognitive factors that implicitly and explicitly guide the climate change adaptation process of farmers and the combined influence of socioeconomic and psychological factors on their adaptive behaviour. Since the importance of psychological factors and the reinforcement of psychology and economics to each other in explaining human behaviour have been well recognised, this paper employs behavioural economic viewpoints, protection motivation theory, and the theory of planned behaviour as the foundation. An integrated conceptual framework has been developed that takes into account psychological as well as socio-economic factors and examines the interaction among those variables in explaining farmers’ decision-making process regarding climate change adaptation. The framework aims to provide a better understanding of farmers’ adaptive behaviour in response to climate change.

ABSTRACT Individual farmers subjectively perceive the attributes of green agricultural innovations and their subsequent benefits. Qualifying this knowledge is important, but past efforts have largely been unsystematic. This systematic study assesses the structure of perceived attributes of sustainable agricultural practices. Through a survey of Malaysian vegetable farmers, the results of confirmatory factor analysis indicate that the most robust structure consists of four attributes. The four important attributes are relative advantage, compatibility, complexity and trialability. Among them, measures are required to link non-economic benefits to profitability to the attribute of relative advantage. Our work represents a guide to assist change agents to evaluate farmer perceptions at different locations systematically. This structured method will help effectively to design and promote sustainable agriculture and other green agricultural innovations.

ABSTRACT This study develops the understanding of the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices (SAPs) by investigating the relative importance of a set of multidimensional factors in the Malaysian vegetable production sector. A factor approach is deployed to identify explanatory indicators within an integrative framework that is synthesized from the theory of interpersonal behavior and the theory of diffusion of innovation. We achieved this by analyzing a logistic regression model for the adoption of six individual SAPs (conservation tillage, intercropping, cover crops/mulches, crop rotation, organic fertilizers/composts, and integrated pest management). The findings indicate that adoption depends on a range of socio-economic, agro-ecological, institutional, informational, and psychological factors, as well as the perceived attributes of SAPs. Fundamental policy understanding of the issue should, therefore, be multidisciplinary. In addition, standardized coefficients reveal that the impact of statistically significant factors on adoption is unequal. In general, the most influential factor is the asymmetric distribution of resources across geographical locations. This is followed by financial capital and a number of factors, including the workforce size, the usefulness of information, Chinese ethnicity, and the perceived relative advantage of SAPs. Guided by this prioritization understanding, future SAPs promotion now has a better opportunity to target the more important areas. Similar research effort should be made to steer sustainable agriculture internationally.

As wine increasingly becomes a lifestyle beverage and more acceptable and desired by a wider spectrum of consumers, there is a greater need to understand wine consumer values, consumption patterns and profiles. This research recognises that lifestyle is inextricably ...

Abstract As the global food marketing environment becomes more competitive, marketers will need to devise mechanisms for understanding and mapping changes in consumers' food-related attitudes and behaviours. Such knowledge is paramount in developing and ...

... implications Yeong Sheng Tey 1,5 *, Elton Li 1 , Johan Bruwer 1 , Amin Mahir Abdullah 2 , Jay Cummins 3 , Alias ... Though its official promotion can be dated back to the 1960s (Taylor et al., 1993), the use of synthetic pesticides is still significant (Aminuddin et al., 2005). ...

Qualitative focus group interviews were performed with ethnic Chinese wine consumers residing in Adelaide, South Australia. The purpose of the interviews was to explore wine related attitudes and behaviours unique to Chinese consumers. The major findings of the study revealed a ...

ABSTRACT Adaptation to climate change in agricultural settings depends on understanding farmers’ perceptions of the nature of climate change, their agency in adapting and the efficacy of adaptive measures themselves. Such knowledge can improve mitigation and adaptation strategies. This study addresses the limited understanding of how farmers appraise their private adaptive measures and influential factors. It uses data from structured interviews with 598 rice farmers in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. Based on protection motivation theory, farmers’ assessments of private adaptive measures were measured by perceived self-efficacy, perceived adaptation efficacy and perceived adaptation cost. Multiple regressions were used to understand significant factors affecting those assessments. Some demographic and socio-economic factors, belief in climate change, information and objective resources were found to influence farmers’ adaptation assessments. It is shown that the sources and quality of information are particularly important. The improvement of both the accessibility and usefulness of local services (e.g. irrigation, agricultural extension, credit and health care) is deemed a necessity for successful adaptation strategies in the Mekong Delta. The paper also shows the application of PMT in measuring farmers’ appraisals of private adaptive measures to climate change, thereby opening this area for further research.

Many countries are confronting climate change that threatens agricultural production and farmers' lives. Farmers' perceived risks of climate change and factors influencing those perceived risks are critical to their adaptive behavior and well-planned adaptation strategies. However, there is limited understanding of these issues. In this paper, we attempt to quantitatively measure farmers' perceived risks of climate change and explore the influences of risk experience, information, belief in climate change, and trust in public adaptation to those perceived risks. Data are from structured interviews with 598 farmers in the Mekong Delta. The study shows that perceived risks to production, physical health, and income dimensions receive greater priority while farmers pay less attention to risks to happiness and social relationships. Experiences of the events that can be attributed to climate change increase farmers' perceived risks. Information variables can increase or d...