Psychological Factors Influencing Farmers’ Intention to Adopt Agroforestry: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

The biophysical characteristics of the farm and farmers’ socioeconomic factors have been used to explain adoption of technologies in Africa. However, agricultural technology adoption requires that we also understand the psychological factors that can encourage or discourage farmer adoption of technologies. The aim of this article is to assess the psychological drivers of farmers’ intentions to adopt agroforestry technologies on their farms. We obtained data from 400 smallholder farmers in the Mt. Elgon region of Uganda. The Theory of Planned Behavior was used as the main framework. Quantitative data were analyzed using structural equation modeling to assess the impact of a set of psychological factors on farmers’ intention to integrate trees in coffee. The intention of farmers to integrate trees in coffee plantations was mainly driven by their evaluation of the benefits of shaded coffee (attitude) followed by beliefs about their own capability (perceived behavioral control). However, social pressure (subjective norm) was insignificant, implying that smallholder farmers tend to deny the influence of other people’s behavior on their actions. Therefore, farmers’ positive evaluation of shading coffee and the perceived capability to overcome tree planting barriers reinforced their intention to integrate trees in coffee. This renders attitude and perceived behavioral control as reliable predictors of farmer tree planting behavior, especially in the context of developing countries.以往研究多基于农场生物物理特征与农户社会经济因素，解释非洲地区的农业技术采纳行为。然而，要探究农业技术采纳决策，还需纳入可促进或抑制农户采纳意愿的心理因素。本文旨在评估农户在其农场采纳农林业技术（agroforestry technologies）的意向背后的心理驱动机制。本研究从乌干达埃尔贡山（Mt. Elgon）地区的400名小农户处收集调研数据，以计划行为理论（Theory of Planned Behavior）作为核心分析框架。通过结构方程模型（structural equation modeling）对定量数据开展分析，以评估一系列心理因素对农户在咖啡种植体系中整合树木的意向的影响。结果显示，农户在咖啡种植园中整合树木的意向，主要由其对遮阴咖啡种植收益的评价（即态度，attitude）驱动，其次是对自身实施该行为能力的信念（即感知行为控制，perceived behavioral control）。但社会压力（主观规范，subjective norm）的影响并不显著，这表明小农户往往不会在意他人行为对自身决策的影响。综上，农户对遮阴咖啡种植的正向评价，以及对克服植树障碍能力的感知，共同强化了其在咖啡种植园中整合树木的意向。这一结果证实，态度与感知行为控制可作为农户植树行为的可靠预测指标，尤其在发展中国家的语境下。