Behavioral Intentions towards Climate-Smart Practices and Rural Farmer’s Food-Nutrition Security: A Micro Economic-Level Evidence

Abstract

The behavioural intention (BI) of adopting climate-smart agricultural (CSA) practices plays a vital role in effectively mitigating the adverse impacts of climate shocks experienced by smallholder farmers in South Africa (SA). Nevertheless, there is a scarcity of information about the socio-psychological factors that influence farmers' adoption of CSA practices and their impacts on food-nutrition security (FNS). The study examined the BI of adopting CSA and its impact on the FNS of farming households in SA. A multistage sampling procedure was employed in selecting rural maize farmers across some selected villages in South Africa. To understand the association between behavioural adoption of CSA and FNS of farming households, an endogenous switching regression model was employed while household dietary diversity score (HDDS) and household food security score (HFIAS) were used to determine the FNS status of the households. The findings indicate that the behavioural intentions of farmers had a significant influence on their desire to implement CSA practices, hence FNS status. Therefore, the findings emphasized the significance of socio-psychological variables (behavioural intentions) in elucidating the adoption decision of CSA practices and its impact on FNS in SA. Following this backdrop, a concerted effort to raise knowledge of CSA practices through the dissemination of pertinent information will exert influence on the farmers' adoption behaviour towards CSA practices which is capable of improving the FNS of the rural maize farmers.