Farmers’ Agreement to Apply and Willingness to Pay for Climate-Smart Agricultural Technologies at the Farm Level

Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) technologies are introduced to increase agricultural productivity and improve farmers’ adaptation to climate change. Several factors influence the extent to which farmers in a particular location adopt CSA technologies. Due to the importance of financial issues, this study aimed to analyze farmers’ agreement to apply and pay for these technologies in Iran. Accordingly, the study population was farmers at Aq Qala County in the north of Iran (N= 5,447). The sample size was estimated using the Bartlett Table (n= 119), and participants were selected through a simple random sampling method. The list of appropriate CSA technologies was prepared using a relevant article and adjusted to the local condition by the agricultural experts’ comments in the research area. Results indicated that farmers’ agreement is mainly higher than their willingness to pay for CSA technology. Specifically, they prefer to pay for technologies with low cost and short-term benefits (e.g., minimum tillage, cover crops method, concentrate feeding for livestock, and crop insurance). Results of this study have practical implications for agricultural agencies in climate change adaptation planning at local level in that farmers should be trained to use low cost practices when they apply CSA practices. Moreover, allocating subsidies to some CSA technologies could be another suggestion to improve climate change management in Iran.

Farmers’ Agreement to Apply and Willingness to Pay for Climate-Smart Agricultural Technologies at the Farm Level Keywords:

Climate-smart agriculture , Farmers , Climate change , Technology , Iran , AqQala , Climate change , Farmer resilience , Farmers subsidy , Flood management