Farmers’ intention to adapt to soil salinity expansion in Fimela, Sine-Saloum area in Senegal: A structural equation modelling approach

Improving farmers’ adaptation behaviour against specific climate change threats has been a global concern. The extant literature on farmers’ adaptation to soil salinity threat has mainly focused on socioeconomic factors, with less emphasis on socio-psychological factors. This study analyses the socio-psychological factors that explain farmers’ intention to adapt to soil salinity using the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT), structural equation modelling approach and a primary data collected on 288 farm households in Fimela district in Senegal. The results indicated that 74.8% of the farmers used organic and chemical fertilizers, and 19.8% used afforestation as climate change adaptation strategies against soil salinity threats. The results further revealed that threat and coping appraisals and subjective norms were the main socio-psychological factors that influenced farmers’ intention to adapt to soil salinity threats. Contrary to our expectation, maladaptive coping had no relationship with farmers’ intention to adapt against soil salinity threats in Fimela. This study has highlighted the importance of Protection Motivation Theory as a robust conceptual framework for explaining the socio-psychological adaptive behaviour of smallholder farmers against soil salinity expansion due to climate change.