Navigating psychological barriers in agricultural innovation adoption: A multi-stakeholder perspective

Abstract

Agricultural innovation is pivotal for enabling cleaner production within the sector. Nonetheless, smallholder farmers in the Global South encounter functional and psychological challenges impeding innovation adoption efforts. Existing literature tends to narrowly focus on common barriers associated with individual innovations, often limiting the broader significance of psychological hindrances. This study takes a unique approach by delving primarily into the realm of psychological barriers, encompassing internal challenges that impede adoption, and explores external support strategies to overcome such hindrances. A multi-stakeholder approach was employed to gather validated insights based on data from eighteen semi-structured interviews involving rice farmers and agricultural technology companies. Research findings revealed that trust, effort, attitudinal, and normative barriers are prominent psychological hindrances to innovation adoption. To this effect, pertinent enabling factors and overcoming strategies should demonstrate clear benefits, infuse trust, reduce effort requirements, and develop human capital. This research is among the first to demystify and categorise psychological barriers and corresponding overcoming strategies into an integrated framework. The resulting framework allows for a novel and comprehensive analysis of the potential strategies to overcome the psychological barriers collectively, a complex issue involving interrelations and hidden dynamics that are challenging to explore otherwise. This study contributes to the Innovation Resistance Theory through its application within the context of smallholder farmers and leads to implications to expedite the transformation towards a more sustainable and innovative agriculture sector.