The Effect of Social Capital on the Choice to Use Sustainable Agricultural Practices

Abstract

We investigate whether social capital in the form of community involvement affects farmers' choice to use sustainable agricultural practices. Using associational memberships as a measure of community involvement we study its effects on agricultural practices among Georgia farmers. Our findings show that, first, community involvement had a positive effect on the decision to adopt sustainable agricultural practices, and, secondly, it also had a positive effect on the extent to which farmers adopt these practices. These findings establish an additional dimension to the benefits that would accrue to policies that promote social interaction and civic engagement in rural areas.

Can Social Capital influence Smallholder Farmers’ Climate-Change Adaptation Decisions? Evidence from Three Semi-Arid Communities in Burkina Faso, West Africa

“…Most empirical studies have shown a positive link between social capital and the adoption of fertilizers (Isham 2002), soil-fertility management technologies (Ali et al 2007;Njuki et al 2008), sustainable agricultural practices (Munasib and Jordan 2011;Silici 2016), forest-resource management (Nath et al 2011), new technology (Katungi 2007), and climate-change adaptation strategies (Balew et al 2014). In Burkina Faso, McCarthy et al (2002) found a positive effect of social capital (in the form of cooperation) on farmers' natural-resource management activities such as reforestation and erosion-control activities in the north-eastern part of the country.…”

Speed of adoption of improved maize varieties in Tanzania: An application of duration analysis

“…With few exceptions (e.g., (Dadi et al, 2004;Abdulai and Huffman, 2005;Matuschke and Qaim, 2008)), previous adoption studies (e.g., (Munasib and Jordan, 2011;Dimara and Skuras, 2003;Isham, 2002;Teklewold et al, 2013;Marenya and Barrett, 2007;Langyintuo and Mekuria, 2008;Bandiera and Rasul, 2006;Kaliba et al, 2000)) in developing countries fail to consider the timing of the adoption event and do not explicitly address the effect of explanatory variables on the time-path of adoption. Including the timing of an adoption can provide important information, particularly if adoption is related to specific events that occurred in the past or if time is considered to be linked to phenomenon-like learning by doing and learning from others (Matuschke, 2007).…”

Present status and future scope of floriculture industry in Sri Lanka and its potential in women empowerment

“…Ju and Fu (2012) reviewed theories of social capital and explained that there was no general definition about social capital but three theories are noted as follows; (a) social capital contains three components; resource embedded in social structure, the persons' capability to use the resource and through the objective ability to use or mobilise these resources (b) social capital as the sum of the potential and real resource embedded in the network owned by individual or organisation, (c) social capital as contact between the main body and society, the capability to access resource through the contact. Munasib and Jordan (2011) viewed social capital as community involvement and farmers used it as sustainable agricultural practices. This study evaluated the linkages of growers with supporters to improve income of rural women and reduce poverty of rural families.…”