A holistic assessment of farmers' intention to adopt agroecological practices – The case of Swiss grassland

Agroecology provides a holistic approach to sustainable agriculture. Although the concept is gaining increasing interest, there is a lack of knowledge regarding farmers' intentions to adopt agroecological practices, and existing studies do not account for its holistic approach. We analyze farmers' intentions to adopt agroecological practices across four key elements of agroecology: diversity, synergy, efficiency, and recycling. We assess a wide range of potential drivers, including farm and farmer characteristics, natural conditions, expected opportunity costs, and behavioral factors. Our focus is on grassland farming in the Swiss mountain region, a production system with high agroecological potential. We combine survey data collected between April and May 2024 from 495 farmers, with agricultural census data and weather data. Our analysis shows that farmers' intentions to adopt agroecology are highest for practices related to recycling, followed by practices that increase synergies, farm diversity, and efficiency. Further, we find that social norms (i.e., injunctive norms, descriptive norms, and signaling motives) are key drivers for scaling up agroecology across all elements. Economic factors primarily relate to the adoption of elements of agroecology especially where higher investments (i.e., solar panels and biogas) are required. The results suggest that measures focusing on farmers' social norms, such as nudges or information campaigns, could support scaling up agroecology. Further, our results highlight the multifaceted nature of agroecology, particularly its interconnected elements and the importance of behavioral factors for adoption intentions. We conclude that a one-size-fits-all approach to the different elements of agroecology is unlikely to be efficient in scaling up agroecology.