Socioeconomic factors influencing farmers’ willingness to replant trees: evidence from smallholder rubber farming in Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT Planting trees is a source of income for many smallholders worldwide and is critical for providing a range of ecosystem services. The effectiveness of the policies and incentives to encourage tree farming by smallholder farmers depends on the socioeconomic context of the farm households. The study investigates smallholder farmers’ willingness to replant rubber after reaching its economic lifespan while also examining the impact of farm households’ socioeconomic factors on willingness to replant. Using the utility maximization theory and logit model, the paper analyses household-level data collected from 404 smallholder farmers in Sri Lanka. The empirical findings show that about 71% of farmers are willing to replant rubber. Socioeconomic characteristics of farm households are significantly associated with the willingness to replant rubber. Considering the increase in the probability of willingness, factors such as education level of household head, share-cropping, family labour, income generation from rubber farming, non-farm income, other agricultural income, farmers group participation, and institutional support, positively affect farmers’ willingness to replant rubber. The findings suggest that considering these factors in the formulation of appropriate incentives and strategies for rubber farm diversification would foster a beneficial environment for smallholder rubber farming.