Risky for the income, useful for the environment: Predicting farmers' intention to adopt oil palm agroforestry using an extended theory of planned behaviour
Dienda Hendrawan, Oliver Mußhoff
Abstract
Oil palm agroforestry provides potential benefits for promoting the environmental sustainability and resilience of smallholder plantations. However, its adoption remains limited, and there is no evidence of sociopsychological factors influencing farmers' adoption of oil palm agroforestry. This study applies an extended Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to analyse smallholder farmers' intentions to adopt oil palm agroforestry. The study sampled 205 oil palm farmers from Jambi, Indonesia and applied partial least squares structural equation modelling, which is commonly used in studies involving TPB. The results showed that attitudes towards oil palm agroforestry and perceived behavioural control positively influenced farmers' intentions to adopt oil palm agroforestry. However, the influence of subjective norms was not statistically significant. Additionally, compared with its perceived environmental benefits, the perceived risks of adopting oil palm agroforestry had a stronger effect on attitudes and perceived behavioural control. The most crucial barrier to adopting oil palm agroforestry is the farmers' perception of its difficulty. The findings highlight that predicting farmers' intention to adopt oil palm agroforestry with the TPB is complex but also underscores the potential acceptance of oil palm agroforestry implementation in smallholder plantations. Policymakers should focus on reducing the barriers and consider smallholders’ practical preferences when designing interventions to implement oil palm agroforestry. The results contribute to the development of sustainable oil palm policy schemes to maintain commodity competitiveness in the global market, where there is an increasing demand for sustainably produced goods. • Oil palm agroforestry is an environment-conscious alternative to monoculture. • Oil palm agroforestry diversifies farmers' income sources but is more complex to manage. • Theory of Planned Behaviour can help understand oil palm farmers' motivations. • Communicating benefits and improving farmers' technical capabilities may enhance adoption of oil palm agroforestry.