Understanding the behavioral factors affecting adoption of sustainable agriculture practices by farmers in Kyrgyzstan

The majority of studies on the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices by Central Asia farmers focus on their technical and economic aspects, ignoring a variety of non-technical and non-economic factors. Behavioral factors can explain adoption or non-adoption of such practices when economic accounting of cost and benefits fail to do so.

The PhD research project by Marlen Tynaliev aims to address how behavioral factors influence the decision-making of smallholder farmers in Kyrgyzstan, particularly in irrigated areas. The study focuses on how experiences with natural shocks, like water scarcity, affect farmers' risk and time preferences, influencing decisions such as crop diversification and adoption of sustainable agricultural practices. The research seeks to provide insights for enhancing sustainability and resilience in smallholder farming communities and contribute to evidence-based agricultural policies. The findings are expected to enrich behavioral agricultural economics and contribute to global debates on sustainable agricultural development and food security in developing countries. The research findings will offer innovative and inclusive analytical insights to evidence utilization in policy development.

Research Questions

1. Does exposure to water scarcity influence smallholders' risk and time preferences?
2. Do risk and time preferences play a role in smallholders' decisions regarding agricultural sustainability and crop diversification?

Research Design and Methods

The study will employ a mixed-methods approach for data collection, integrating both quantitative and qualitative techniques. The central part of the research will be primary data collection from smallholder farmers using lottery games and post-experimental survey. The field experiment will take place in Kyrgyzstan's Osh and Jalal-Abad provinces, focusing on villages with contrasting availability of irrigation water. The post-experimental survey will collect in-depth data on socio-economic characteristics. For measuring risk and time preference, an approach that builds on the framework combining Prospect Theory and hyperbolic discounting will be used.

• Foundation Fiat Panis