Identification of Farmers’ Barriers to Implement Sustainable Management Practices in Olive Groves

Gema Parra, Luis Joaquin Garcia-Lopez, José A. Piqueras and Roberto García
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Gema Parra: Animal Biology, Plant Biology and Ecology Department, University of Jaén, 23071 Jaén, Spain
Luis Joaquin Garcia-Lopez: Department of Psychology, University of Jaén, 23071 Jaén, Spain
José A. Piqueras: Department of Health Psychology, University Miguel Hernández de Elche, 03202 Elche, Spain
Roberto García: Center for Advanced Studies in Earth, Energy and Environment Sciences, University of Jaén, 23071 Jaén, Spain

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 11, 1-15

Abstract: Current European agriculture policies and strategies are aimed to boost the transition from the predominant conventional to a more environmentally friendly agriculture model. As part of this, it is crucial to identify the barriers that exist to implementing crop-specific management practices so that appropriate mitigating steps to overcome these can be executed. Participatory action research, where farmers are research actors rather than objects, is essential to identify the main barriers farmers have to face. The objective of this study was to identify the main barriers to the adoption of a combination of sustainable management practices in olive cropping in Southern Spain. A 20-item questionnaire was designed and responded to by 200 Spanish olive farmers. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to assess the factor structure. The final best fit model included 14 items that were grouped in the following four barriers or facilitators: “lack of training/formation”, and “lack of economic/policy support” as barriers; “wellbeing–nature connection” and “environmental impact awareness” as facilitators. The mean scores on the different factors were higher than the theoretical mean, so the identification of the two barriers and the two facilitators for implementing sustainable practices was robust. Farmers, especially women, are concerned about their knowledge limitation in implementing sustainable management practices, which opens a window of opportunity for specific actions (i.e., training and demonstrative events) to be taken for accomplishing the agriculture sector transformation.

Keywords: olive grove; barriers; sustainability; questionnaire; training (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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