Farmers’ incremental adaptation to water scarcity: An application of the model of private proactive adaptation to climate change (MPPACC)

Tahereh Zobeidi, Jafar Yaghoubi and Masoud Yazdanpanah

Agricultural Water Management, 2022, vol. 264, issue C

Abstract: To support effective adaptation in the agriculture sector through policy and practice, it is essential to know how farmers, as the primary decision-makers regarding land use, understand and respond to water scarcity. Using the model of private proactive adaptation to climate change (MPPACC) as a basic framework for the study, the research investigated the effects of cognitive factors on maladaptation in farmers’ incremental adaptation to water scarcity as a climate risk. Data were collected during face-to-face interviews with 250 farmers of irrigated lands in Khuzestan province, Iran. The structural equation modeling results showed that the research model predicted 49% of the variance in adaptive behavior and 24% of the variance in maladaptation. These results provide strong empirical evidence for the hypothesis that maladaptation has an important and negative effect on determining adaptive behaviors (β = −.33). Moreover, perceived susceptibility (β = −.42, β = .38), perceived cost (β = −.21, β = −.32), and perceived self-efficacy (β = .31, β = −.29) directly affected both adaptive behavior and maladaptation. This study contributes to the literature by: i) adding to the limited number of studies on the MPPACC; ii) confirming the efficiency of this model in the water scarcity context, as the MPPACC can be used to understand behavior of people faced with an environmental threat; and iii) improving knowledge regarding the impact of belief in climate change on the constructs of the MPPACC.

Keywords: Water scarcity; Risk appraisal; Maladaptation; Adaptive capacity; Self-efficacy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:264:y:2022:i:c:s0378377422000750

DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2022.107528

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