Using the theory of planned behavior to assess Seychellois farmers’ intentions to adopt agroforestry

Agroforestry is crucial in Africa for its ability to enhance food security, improve livelihoods, and promote sustainable land management by integrating trees into farmlands, thereby addressing climate change. Studies addressing the role of psychological factors in the adoption of agroforestry in Africa and island contexts are urgently needed. An extended Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) was applied to assess its influence towards agroforestry adoption among farmers in Seychelles. A stratified random sampling was used to select 247 farmers across the five agricultural zones in Seychelles, and the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach, together with descriptive statistics, was applied in the analysis. The results indicate that knowledge improves the explanation of adoption and has a positive impact on farmers’ adoption of agroforestry. At the same time, the core TPB variables were found to be statistically insignificant. Regarding the four intention questions administered among the farmers, 67.2 % are willing to learn about agroforestry practices, 65.6 % are willing to receive information about agroforestry, and 60 % are eager to adopt agroforestry with financial support. In contrast, another 47.4 % are willing to adopt agroforestry without financial support. Despite these high levels of agreement, most TPB factors were insignificant predictors of the outcome. The lack of a significant influence of the TPB factors in our study suggests that we cannot confirm that TPB variables affect actual adoption and may support the common criticism of the model concerning the well-known intention-behaviour “gap”. We therefore recommend repeating this study in the next five years with the same farmers to address the intention-action gap. Lastly, studies on agroforestry adoption and retention are crucial, as some adopters may discontinue using the technology for various reasons.