PhD defence - Kassa Tarekegn Erekalo

The agri-food sector is a significant contributor to about one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), with 70% of these emissions originating from agriculture and land-use changes. Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) plays a central role in reducing GHG while maintaining agricultural productivity. CSA encompasses a diverse range of farming practices and technologies with the core aim, as defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), of sustainably increasing agricultural productivity, enhancing climate change resilience and adaptation, and reducing GHG emissions. Although principles of CSA have been embedded within the European Union (EU)'s broader climate and sustainability strategies through multiple policy frameworks, promoting and supporting climate-friendly farming practices, its adoption remains low. This gap reflects a combination of behavioral barriers, economic lock-ins, and contextual constraints, underscoring the need to better understand the behavioural and economic levers and lock-ins influencing decision-making on both the supply and demand sides of the food system. Therefore, the thesis aims to explore the behavioural and economic levers and lock-ins that influence CSA adoption on the farmers’ side and the demand for CSA-produced food on the consumers’ side.

This thesis comprises four papers that address four research questions, focusing on the CSA landscape and behavioral insights from both supply and demand-side actors’ perspectives. First, it maps which CSA practices and technologies that are currently present in European agricultural production and how they contribute both to the FAO definition of CSA outcomes and to EU sustainability dimensions (biodiversity, animal welfare, resource efficiency). In this regard, Paper 1 maps CSA within European farming systems from this combined FAO-EU perspective, employing a systematic review approach. In total, 74 farming practices and technologies were identified by assessing their contributions to the objectives of CSA. Second, Paper 2investigates how behavioral factors associate with farmers’ intentions to adopt CSA and whether these associations differ between CSA adopters and non-adopters. Drawing on a behavioral survey grounded in the extended Theory of Planned Behavior and data from 691 respondents across five European countries, Paper 2 shows the heterogeneous associations of attitudes, perceived behavioral control, social norms, and individual farm business motivations in shaping future CSA adoption decisions, indicating the need for subgroup-specific tailored interventions.

Third, the thesis examines to what extent a provision of production method information and social norm messages enhance consumers’ willingness to pay for food produced climate friendly. Paper 3 employed a randomized survey experiment with 1568 respondents in Denmark, Lithuania and Spain, demonstrating production method information provision alone increases WTP, however, combining it with social norm cues produces a slightly stronger effect. It also reveals that response differs by age groups, with younger consumers being more responsive to social norm messages, whereas older consumers respond more to production method information. Finally, the thesis explores the extent to which farmers allocate land between CSA and conventional practices in response to two economic instruments: taxation of unsustainable behaviors and premiums for sustainable behaviors. Paper 4 based on lab-in-the-field experiment with 251 Danish farmers, reveals that both instruments increase land allocation towards CSA, but the responsiveness varies by farmer type; non-organic farmers tend to show greater responsiveness to taxation than organic farmers.

The findings of this thesis suggest various possible levers for improving the modest uptake of CSA. Farmers’ intentions to adopt CSA are shaped by diverse psychological, social, informational, and economic factors, and these influences differ between those with and without previous CSA experience. This indicates the value of tailored, subgroup-specific behavioral support. It was found that economic instruments such as taxes on conventional practices and premiums for CSA can shift land allocation towards CSA, but their effectiveness varies by farmer type. Consumers are willing to pay a premium for CSA-produced food, particularly when credible information about production methods is combined with social-norm cues, though responses vary across age groups, suggesting that consumer group–specific communication strategies may enhance demand.