Environmental risk perception, environmental concern and propensity to participate in organic farming programmes
Introduction
Agri-environmental programmes (AEPs) are a key instrument for the successful integration of environmental objectives into the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union (EU). They aim to internalise the positive externalities from extensively used farmland, by offering compensation payments for farmers’ income losses when converting from intensive to extensive farming practices (e.g., applying measures such as reduction of mineral fertilisers and pesticides use, organic farming, etc.). However, if the levels of compensation are low and would trigger only minor management changes in relatively low income farming systems, such as in the Central and Eastern European countries, most farmers would not be interested to join the programmes (European Environmental Agency, 2004).
Romania has already prioritised the issue of agri-environmental programmes under the pre-accession support programmes (Special Accession Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development–SAPARD), yet implementation has been severely delayed due to the slow accreditation of the proposed administrative arrangements according to the EU rules. The SAPARD Measure 3.3 on ‘Agricultural production methods designed to protect the environment and maintain the countryside’ is to be accredited by the European Commission during 2005–2006 (Ministry of the European Integration, 2005). The implementation of this measure is based on both the identification of limitations of the environmental factors’ quality due to agricultural practices and on the analysis of the main features of Romanian agriculture that are relevant for the proposed measure. The process implies in a first phase setting up pilot projects. Detailed rules, such as delimitation of the area, type of contract, annual value of the grant per hectare and per farm will be defined in a subsequent phase after further consultations with the European Commission (Romanian Government, 2003).
There is a large body of research identifying the determinants of farmers’ participation in AEPs. Most of them examine the influence of socio-economic and structural factors on behaviour and decision-making (e.g., Potter and Gasson, 1988; Brotherton, 1991; Wilson, 1992; Ward and Lowe, 1994). Some others use the theory of reasoned action (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980) which, applied to agri-environmental issues, is based on the assumption that farmers’ behavioural intentions are directly related to their attitudes (e.g., Carr and Tait, 1991; Wilson, 1996).
The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors underlying farmers’ propensity to participate in organic farming programmes in a Romanian rural region that confronts non-point source agricultural pollution, with particular emphasis on the role of farmers’ risk perception and environmental concern. The methodological approach considers structural equation modelling with latent variables using a specific data set collected through an agri-environmental farm survey in 2001. This methodology has been little used in case studies dealing with farmers’ participation in AEPs (e.g., Ondersteijn et al., 2003). Moreover, this paper is the first to analyse the determinants of farmers’ participation in AEPs in Romania using structural equation modelling.
At this point in time, when AEPs have just begun to be applied as a policy instrument in Romania, this study would bring some innovative insights as it provides the means of analysing farmers’ decision-making process as regards their propensity to participate in AEPs. As farmers’ decisions to participate are essential to reaching policy objectives, understanding farmers’ attitudes towards AEPs and the range of factors that affect their decisions towards participation would be of significant interest to policy-makers.
The paper is structured as follows: Section 2 reviews the literature identifying the determinants of farmers’ participation in AEPs. 3 Data, 4 Methodology present the case study and the methodology. Section 5 discusses the results and Section 6 presents some conclusions.
Section snippets
Determinants of farmers’ propensity to participate in agri-environmental programmes
Voluntary participation in environmental protection programmes has gained increased attention and use as a tool for accomplishing environmental objectives (Segerson and Miceli, 1998; Carraro and Lévêque, 1999). Instruments encouraging voluntary participation are presented either as ‘carrots’ (e.g., subsidies), or as ‘sticks’ (e.g., threats of introducing mandatory participation) (Soderqvist, 2003). The ‘carrot’ approach may involve subsidies intended to cover farmers’ additional costs caused by
Data
Our case study is placed in the south-eastern part of Romania, in the agricultural region of Cazanesti crossed by the Ialomita River, one of the major watercourses in the country. The commune of Cazanesti is characterised by low diversification of economic activity and is, therefore, excessively dependent on agriculture. This sector is characterised by a high degree of land ownership fragmentation, obsolete agricultural machinery, inadequate infrastructure and ageing population employed in
Methodology
To identify the factors determining farmers’ propensity to participate in organic farming programmes, we follow the attitude-behaviour framework as used in most literature on this issue (e.g., Wilson, 1996). To statistically test the relationships within this framework, we use structural equation modelling (SEM) with latent (unobserved) variables (as e.g. Ondersteijn et al., 2003). Latent variables are variables at the construct level, an intermediate level between theory and data that are also
Results
We use a path diagram to describe the basic structure underlying the model. The optimal model includes three exogenous latent variables (‘demosoc’ as a predictor of ‘particip’; ‘econ’ as a predictor of ‘risk’ and ‘concern’; ‘info’ as a predictor of ‘concern’), two variables with alternating roles (‘risk’ and ‘concern’ being endogenous on the one hand and exogenous as predictors of ‘particip’ on the other) and one endogenous latent variable, ‘particip’.
The critical N equals 87.85 which is
Discussion
To summarise, the results indicate that, overall, the model has an acceptable fit to the data. All loadings are statistically significant, thus supporting the theoretical basis for assignment of indicators for each latent variable. The significance tests for the structural model parameters show ‘environmental risk perception’ as the strongest determinant of farmers’ behavioural intentions to participate in organic farming programmes (the higher the risk perception the stronger the intention to
Conclusions
This paper has highlighted the complexity of factors influencing Romanian farmers’ decision-making environment about participation in organic farming programmes, and analysed the interlinkages between the individual factors. We carried out this analysis using structural equation modelling with latent variables.
Among the attitudinal and socio-economic latent variables included in the model, ‘environmental risk perception’ has been found to be the strongest determinant of farmers’ propensity to
Acknowledgements
This research was financially supported by the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium (doctoral scholarship) and the Project “Sustainable Agriculture in Central and Eastern European Countries” (CEESA) within the Fifth Framework Research Programme of the European Commission. The authors are grateful for the comments of some of the participants at the XIth International Congress of the European Association of Agricultural Economists, Dr. Alistair Stott from the Scottish Agricultural College and
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