Factors fostering and hindering farmers' intention to adopt organic agriculture in the Pesaro-Urbino province (Italy)

Abstract

Current global problems such as the loss of soil fertility and biodiversity and the growth of the world's population for which health and food sovereignty must be guaranteed, make it clear that it will be essential to spread innovations to increase not only productivity but also the quality of production in order to meet these challenges. However, this will not be enough if profound changes are not made in all systems and more sustainable food systems are not built. Organic agriculture is widely considered a more sustainable production system. However, despite the growing attention of consumers towards organic products and the increase in the area devoted to organic farming in recent years, its growth is not homogeneous among and within countries. Therefore, in this work, we investigate the main drivers and barriers to adopting organic farming, first analysing the literature and then administering a questionnaire to a sample of 202 conventional farmers in the Pesaro-Urbino province (Italy). The survey data show that the adoption of organic farming is fostered by the farmer's attitude towards this production method's social and environmental sustainability. The main hindering factors are the farmer's personal characteristics, such as old age, lower education level, perception of bureaucracy, and the farm's inadequacy of technical structures.