Sustainability transition: Are we there yet? - Analysis of transition intention and sustainable tools adoption among New Zealand sheep farmers

Abstract

The agricultural transition toward a vision of net-zero emissions in 2050 of the New Zealand (NZ) government may push New Zealand farmers into the challenges of seeking improvement in agricultural values while reducing environmental impacts. Agricultural sustainability tools probably help farmers overcome personal and practical restrictions in implementing sustainability transformation. However, the challenges presented in implementing and adopting agricultural sustainability tools have not been well assessed in the literature, and NZ’s sheep farmers have more concerns about sustainable products than dairy farmers. Therefore, it is important to answer the question: are New Zealand sheep farmers ready to transform into the bioeconomy yet? This study aims to assess the intention of sheep farmers to adopt sustainable tools for the bioeconomy transition and how information collection moderates the relationship between farmers’ intentions for sustainability transition and the use of sustainability tools. We use the data collected from a survey of NZ sheep farmers in 2021 to investigate their motivation, awareness, and readiness for moving toward sustainability transitions. We employ Principal Component Analysis associated with Structural Equation Modeling to empirically confirm the Theory of Planned Behaviour constructs. The results show that the priority of NZ policies and the sheep industry and the perceived controls of sheep farmers toward the transition significantly drive the intention of sustainability transition of sheep farmers. Farmers with sustainability transition intentions are more likely to adopt sustainability tools. There is no evidence about the mediating role of information collection behaviour on the relationship between transformation intentions and sustainability tool adoption. However, our findings confirm the positive effect of sustainability information collection on sustainability tool use for sheep farmers.