Understanding Farmers’ Intentions to Adopt Organic Farming in Albania

Abstract

Organic agriculture in Europe is expanding, yet is still in the early stages in less developed areas of Europe. Understanding the factors of converting to organic agriculture is a key component for both policy design and attaining effective support for the organic sector from the government, donors, or the private sector. Therefore, the study attempts to explore the determinant factors of farmers’ intentions to engage in organic farming based on primary data collected through a farm survey in Albania. Results show that subjective norms, perceived behavior control, favorable attitudes toward organic farming conversion, as well as awareness of risk from conventional farming accompanied with information awareness are positively associated with the probability of converting to organic farming. Farmers’ perceptions of EU policy opportunities and attitudes towards environment protection are negatively associated with farmers’ tendency to convert. The study findings call for the use of financial and non-financial policy instruments for supporting conversion to organic farming and increased information on opportunities and costs expected from the integration into the EU single market.