Farmers behaviour and adoption of sustainable farming practices

The agri-food systems face many global and local challenges, including climate change, environmental degradation, and loss of biodiversity. There is an urgent need to transition agri-food systems’ goals from production efficiency to sustainability to address these challenges. Sustainable farming practices (SFPs) plays a critical role in this transition, as they have the potential to not only improve farmers’ incomes and food production but also preserve the natural environment. This thesis makes significant contributions to the literature by analysing farmers’ attitudes and behaviour towards sustainable farming, with a specific focus on uplands and hills beef and sheep farms in Northern Ireland (NI). A literature review was conducted on niches market for sustainable agri-food systems to provide insights into the motivation behind farmers’ attitudes and behaviour towards sustainable farming. Consequently, an analysis based on the Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modelling was conducted on 357 beef and sheep farms in NI to examine the behavioural drivers of adoption intensity, defined in terms of multiple SFPs and the duration (in years) of adoption. To understand the factors influencing farmers' attitudes towards the environmental impact of their farming activities, and the barriers to adopting sustainable practices among upland beef and sheep farms in NI, an ordered logit model and descriptive analysis was conducted on the 357 beef and sheep farms. The findings show that environmental attitudes, profitability goals, and access to formal information are significant drivers of adoption intensity. Results also show that education, farm structure, financial constraints, and regulatory burdens as key influences on farmers’ attitudes towards environment and sustainable farming. The thesis concludes by recommending that policies aimed at increasing the adoption of sustainable farming should combine both behavioural and socio-economic interventions. Such a policy mix could encourage more widespread and effective adoption of SFPs across the agri-food sector.