An Assessment of the Greek Farmers’ Motives to Adopt Bio-Pesticide Products

European Green Deal aims to reduce the use and risk of chemical pesticides by 50% by 2030, although it is still undefined, on the one hand, whether a reduction in chemical pesticides could be feasible in different farming systems and situations and on the other, if farmers are willing to quit chemical pesticides in favour of other solution. A solution towards reducing chemical pesticides are the pesticides derived from natural materials such as animals, plants, bacteria, and fungi named in general, Biopesticides. The prospects for biopesticides are quite promising, and they are expected to play an increasingly important role in sustainable agriculture and pest control in the future since they demonstrate some potential advantages like environmental sustainability, reduced chemical residue, less adverse health problems for farmers and so on. Having this in mind the prospects for Biopesticides to acquire a significant market share in the pesticides market are quite promising. Nevertheless, biopesticides, as any new technology in agriculture, should be adopted and promoted by the farmers themselves. For this reason, it is crucial to examine farmers’ perception about biopesticides, their attributes and to conclude if they are willing to move towards to reduce chemical pesticides in favour of biopesticides. This paper aims to provide a first investigation about the perceptions of farmers in Greece about biopesticides. For this reason, a questionnaire examining farmers’ perceptions was prepared and distributed in farmers in northern Greece. The main goal of this research is to find out what could motivate Greek farmers to adopt more environmentally friendly practices and more specific if they are willing to adopt and use biopesticide products. A special part of the questionnaire was devoted to rank and evaluate by using the best—worst scaling approach 11 advantages, and 7 disadvantages derived by the international bibliography about biopesticides. Best—worst scaling approach provides more accurate results about ranking biopesticides properties. Another part of the questionnaire devoted to investigating Greek farmers’ willingness to pay for biopesticides products by applying Stoetzel’s approach of min and max price. The results of this research could help policy makers and biopesticides companies to formulate a communication strategy to approach farmers to increase the willingness to adopt biopesticides.