Empowering small farmers for sustainable agriculture: a human resource approach to SDG-driven training and innovation

What is it about?

In the face of the increasing global focus on sustainable agriculture, it's crucial for organizations and governments to help small-scale farmers learn how to farm sustainably in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). But figuring out how training programs can best help farmers adopt sustainable practices is a big challenge. This paper takes a human resource approach to understand the connections between training effectiveness, the personal and demographic characteristics of farmers, and the adoption of sustainable farming practices. Here's how we did it: We used a method where we randomly selected farmers in several stages and gave them a structured questionnaire to fill out. We collected information from 331 small-scale farmers who were part of a government-led program to teach them about sustainable farming. What we found: Our research shows that the human resource approach to training is vital, not only for farmers but also for the broader goal of supporting the SDGs. Specifically, we discovered that continuous exposure to training, a strong inner motivation to gain knowledge, and the ability of farmers to come up with new ideas all work together to make training programs more effective. This, in turn, significantly boosts the adoption of sustainable farming practices in line with the SDGs.

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