IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i11p6451-d823646.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • Gema Parra

    (Animal Biology, Plant Biology and Ecology Department, University of Jaén, 23071 Jaén, Spain
    Center for Advanced Studies in Earth, Energy and Environment Sciences, 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
    University Institute for Research on Olives and Olive Oil, University of Jaén, 23071 Jaén, Spain)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Gema Parra & Luis Joaquin Garcia-Lopez & José A. Piqueras & Roberto García, 2022. "Identification of Farmers’ Barriers to Implement Sustainable Management Practices in Olive Groves," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-15, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:11:p:6451-:d:823646
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/11/6451/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/11/6451/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tingting Liu & Randall J. F. Bruins & Matthew T. Heberling, 2018. "Factors Influencing Farmers’ Adoption of Best Management Practices: A Review and Synthesis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-26, February.
    2. Gomez-Limon, Jose Antonio & Riesgo, Laura, 2010. "Sustainability assessment of olive grove in Andalusia: A methodological proposal," 120th Seminar, September 2-4, 2010, Chania, Crete 109323, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    3. Marina García-Llorente & Irene Pérez-Ramírez & Clara Sabán de la Portilla & Carmen Haro & Alejandro Benito, 2019. "Agroecological Strategies for Reactivating the Agrarian Sector: The Case of Agrolab in Madrid," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-19, February.
    4. Kheiri, Shaghayegh, 2015. "Identifying the Barriers of Sustainable Agriculture Adoption by Wheat Farmers in Takestan, Iran," International Journal of Agricultural Management and Development (IJAMAD), Iranian Association of Agricultural Economics, vol. 5(3), September.
    5. Johan Rockström & Will Steffen & Kevin Noone & Åsa Persson & F. Stuart Chapin & Eric F. Lambin & Timothy M. Lenton & Marten Scheffer & Carl Folke & Hans Joachim Schellnhuber & Björn Nykvist & Cynthia , 2009. "A safe operating space for humanity," Nature, Nature, vol. 461(7263), pages 472-475, September.
    6. Guillaume Lafortune & Grayson Fuller & Guido Schmidt-Traub & Christian Kroll, 2020. "How Is Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals Measured? Comparing Four Approaches for the EU," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-24, September.
    7. Luís Loures & Alejandro Chamizo & Paulo Ferreira & Ana Loures & Rui Castanho & Thomas Panagopoulos, 2020. "Assessing the Effectiveness of Precision Agriculture Management Systems in Mediterranean Small Farms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-15, May.
    8. Sarah C Klain & Paige Olmsted & Kai M A Chan & Terre Satterfield, 2017. "Relational values resonate broadly and differently than intrinsic or instrumental values, or the New Ecological Paradigm," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(8), pages 1-21, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Matteo Trane & Luisa Marelli & Alice Siragusa & Riccardo Pollo & Patrizia Lombardi, 2023. "Progress by Research to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals in the EU: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-37, April.
    2. Upadhaya, Suraj & Arbuckle, J. Gordon & Schulte, Lisa A., 2021. "Developing farmer typologies to inform conservation outreach in agricultural landscapes," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    3. Bélisle, Annie Claude & Wapachee, Alice & Asselin, Hugo, 2021. "From landscape practices to ecosystem services: Landscape valuation in Indigenous contexts," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    4. Nelson, Ewan & Warren, Peter, 2020. "UK transport decoupling: On track for clean growth in transport?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 39-51.
    5. Matthias Winfried Kleespies & Paul Wilhelm Dierkes, 2020. "Impact of biological education and gender on students’ connection to nature and relational values," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-18, November.
    6. Richter, Andries & Dakos, Vasilis, 2015. "Profit fluctuations signal eroding resilience of natural resources," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 12-21.
    7. Rostami-Tabar, Bahman & Ali, Mohammad M. & Hong, Tao & Hyndman, Rob J. & Porter, Michael D. & Syntetos, Aris, 2022. "Forecasting for social good," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 1245-1257.
    8. Huiyuan Guan & Yongping Bai & Chunyue Zhang, 2022. "Research on Ecosystem Security and Restoration Pattern of Urban Agglomeration in the Yellow River Basin," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-19, September.
    9. Filipa Correia & Philipp Erfruth & Julie Bryhn, 2018. "The 2030 Agenda: The roadmap to GlobALLizaton," Working Papers 156, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
    10. Birgit Kopainsky & Anita Frehner & Adrian Müller, 2020. "Sustainable and healthy diets: Synergies and trade‐offs in Switzerland," Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(6), pages 908-927, November.
    11. Hervé Corvellec & Johan Hultman & Anne Jerneck & Susanne Arvidsson & Johan Ekroos & Niklas Wahlberg & Timothy W. Luke, 2021. "Resourcification: A non‐essentialist theory of resources for sustainable development," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(6), pages 1249-1256, November.
    12. Pérez-Sánchez, Laura & Velasco-Fernández, Raúl & Giampietro, Mario, 2021. "The international division of labor and embodied working time in trade for the US, the EU and China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    13. Islam, Moinul & Kotani, Koji & Managi, Shunsuke, 2016. "Climate perception and flood mitigation cooperation: A Bangladesh case study," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 117-133.
    14. Yutong Zhang & Wei Zhou & Danxue Luo, 2023. "The Relationship Research between Biodiversity Conservation and Economic Growth: From Multi-Level Attempts to Key Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-19, February.
    15. Carina Mueller & Christopher West & Mairon G. Bastos Lima & Bob Doherty, 2023. "Demand-Side Actors in Agricultural Supply Chain Sustainability: An Assessment of Motivations for Action, Implementation Challenges, and Research Frontiers," World, MDPI, vol. 4(3), pages 1-20, September.
    16. Janet Judy McIntyre‐Mills, 2013. "Anthropocentrism and Well‐being: A Way Out of the Lobster Pot?," Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 136-155, March.
    17. Hametner, Markus, 2022. "Economics without ecology: How the SDGs fail to align socioeconomic development with environmental sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    18. Christina W. Lopez & Madeline T. Wade & Jason P. Julian, 2023. "Nature–Human Relational Models in a Riverine Social–Ecological System: San Marcos River, TX, USA," Geographies, MDPI, vol. 3(2), pages 1-49, March.
    19. Chapman, Mollie & Satterfield, Terre & Chan, Kai M.A., 2019. "When value conflicts are barriers: Can relational values help explain farmer participation in conservation incentive programs?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 464-475.
    20. Ronja Teschner & Jessica Ruppen & Basil Bornemann & Rony Emmenegger & Lucía Aguirre Sánchez, 2021. "Mapping Sustainable Diets: A Comparison of Sustainability References in Dietary Guidelines of Swiss Food Governance Actors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-21, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:11:p:6451-:d:823646. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.