Toward a low-pesticide agriculture: bridging practice theory and social-psychological concepts to analyze farmers’ routines

Agricultural crop protection (CP) today is under pressure not the least because it strongly relies on pesticides that negatively affect the environment and human health. Policy attempts to induce a transition toward low-pesticide CP have had limited success so far. While the literature has examined these difficulties primarily in terms of farmer decision-making, recent research has begun to highlight the routine nature of farmers’ practices as a key aspect of the inertia of prevailing CP practices. Here we propose a framework that bridges practice theory (PT) and social-psychological concepts. We illustrate the relevance of this framework by gauging the relative roles of individual and structural factors as well as mechanisms that (de)stabilize pesticide-use practices. Our analysis is based on data from a survey conducted among Swiss farmers (n=652). Using structural equation modeling, we find that structural factors are more strongly associated with pesticide use than individual factors. Although farmers’ personal norms to limit the use of pesticides are activated by values, self-efficacy, and social norms, they do not translate into behavior. Structural factors such as local production conditions and knowledge sourced from private agricultural advisory services appear to inhibit the mediating role of personal norms with respect to pesticide use. We conclude that reconfiguring such structural elements of CP practices may help to disrupt routines and eventually lead to a low-pesticide agriculture. Our findings also highlight the benefits of integrating PT and social-psychological concepts to advance our understanding of routines in CP.