Barriers to adoption of sustainableagriculture practices: Changeagent perspectives

Conventional agriculture systems of production often lead to environmental degradation, economic problems and evensocial conflict. The efficacy of agriculture systems conducive to the economic, environmental and social sustainability offarming operations has been demonstrated, yet the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices is not widespread. Thisqualitative study is based on a web-based survey instrument designed to elicit the barriers to adoption of sustainableagriculture practices (SAP) perceived by a positional and network sample of 269 change agents working with farmers in theUS South. The analysis examines the general proposition that reluctance to change to SAP is an overused rationale ofchange agents that tends to mask real barriers that we endeavor to elicit in the survey. It was found that despite havingsupport from technical assistance providers, farmers are rarely adopting SAP. Change agents often are not well prepared toattend to farmers’ needs regarding SAP, particularly the needs of specific farming situations. Thus, farmers often struggle toobtain accurate information about the benefits of SAP. Government support programs often fail to encourage adoption dueto lack of funding, inappropriate design and ineffective targeting of incentives. Reluctance to change is frequentlymentioned by change agents, but more as a way of blaming farmers for nonadoption than explaining the often tangiblereasons for their behaviors. Social barriers, land tenure, infrastructure and incompatibility are other significant impedimentsto adoption. Strategies such as improved management of the existing information, careful design of economic supportprograms and extension efforts addressed to change agents themselves could help overcome some of the barriers identifiedby change agents