Understanding the extent to which farmers are capable of mitigating climate change: A carbon capability perspective

Abstract

The reduction of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions relies on farmers' active involvement in mitigation actions. However, little is known about farmers' capability of engaging with climate change mitigation. This study addresses the gap by delineating an actor-centered, capability-based, and multi-dimensional framework of farmers' carbon capability to elucidate how and to what extent farmers are equipped to engage in climate change mitigation. A structural equation model and farm-level data collected from China are used to explore the structural relationships between the carbon capability constructs. The results show that farmers' intrapsychic constructs are pro-environmental, and their cognitive knowledge about pro-climate farming practices is moderate. However, the performance of pro-climate farming is largely not under farmers' behavioral control. Farmers generally have a weak tendency to perform stable pro-climate farming behaviors, while they are slightly more inclined to behave pro-environmentally in social interactions. In addition, farmers’ behavioral control capability emerges as the strongest predictor of the behavioral capability of farming, which, in turn, is an essential prerequisite for both the behavioral capability of socializing and influence capability. The findings of this study have important strategic implications for policymakers seeking to reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.