Do institutions, incentives, and information enhance adoption of climate smart agriculture practices? Empirical evidence from India

Abstract

Over the years, numerous studies have identified factors influencing farmers’ adaptive behaviour in India, however, there is a dearth of studies with respect to determinants like institutions, incentives, and information. This study, therefore, aims to fill this gap by assessing role of these factors in driving climate-smart agriculture practices. In total, 1274 farmers were surveyed from the 11 disaster-prone districts of four coastal states, namely, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Maharashtra. From the survey, it is observed that farmers are adopting seven non-mutually exclusive options, and thus, a multivariate probit model is employed. Our findings are: (i) more than 90 percent of the farmers adopt at least one option, and the most preferred measures are shifting of the crops, disaster-resilient crops, water management, and soil management options; (ii) in line with previous studies, the major determinants under household characteristics are livelihood diversification, and assets and amenities; (iii) access to soil health card is observed as the crucial factor for uptake of various options; (iv) none of the variables under institutions and incentives, and information, except for access to agro-met advisory services, are viewed as a major cause for adoption of all climate-smart agriculture options, but the mixed causal association is noticed for some of the measures. Concerning policy implications, this study advocates diversification of income sources, scaling up programs related to soil health card and agro-met advisory services, and restructuring existing institutions, developmental interventions, incentive mechanisms, and communication channels. It is essential since the support of policies and institutions are needed for the diffusion of agricultural innovations.