How Do Path Dependencies in Family Farming Affect Behavioural Intentions to Adopt Sustainable Practices? Exploring the Potential of Developing Carbon Farming by Smallholders in Serbia

Borychowski, Michał; Czyżewski, Bazyli; Sapa, Agnieszka; Kryszak, Łukasz

How Do Path Dependencies in Family Farming Affect Behavioural Intentions to Adopt Sustainable Practices? Exploring the Potential of Developing Carbon Farming by Smallholders in Serbia

Abstract

Carbon farming (CF) represents an approach to agricultural production that seeks to enhance the organic carbon content of the soil. The principal objective of this article was to investigate Serbian farmers' intentions to implement CF practices based on an extended model of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). The research sample comprised a group of 150 cereal farmers from the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina (Northern Serbia). Data were collected between May and September 2023 using semi-structured face-to-face questionnaires. The analysis was conducted utilising structural equation modelling and simultaneous confirmatory factor analysis. The effect of path dependencies, as reflected in the degree of embeddedness in family farming, was found to be ambiguous. The path dependencies had a positive influence on subjective norms, which in turn exerted an indirect positive effect on intentions via this path. However, in correlation with perceived behavioural control, path dependencies negatively affected the intention to adopt CF. Indeed, the smallholders were highly path-dependent and strongly attached to family farming, and so the more experienced and confident farmers were paradoxically less likely to adopt sustainable practices. A second important finding is the confirmation of the key role of morality in influencing smallholder farmers' intentions, with an indication of the main motive to pass on land to successors in good condition