Farmer’s objectives as determinant factors of organic farming adoption

Our paper seeks to assess the decision to adopt organic farming practices. More specifically, we use Duration Analysis (DA) to determine why farmers adopt organic farming and the timing of adoption. We extend previous studies by including farmers’ objectives, risk preferences and agricultural policies as covariates in the DA model. The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) is used as a multi-criteria decision-making methodology to measure farmers’ objectives. The empirical analysis uses farm-level data collected through a questionnaire to a sample of vineyard holdings in the Spanish region of Catalonia. Farmers’ objectives are found to influence the conversion decision. Moreover, farmers who are not risk averse are more prone to adopt organic farming. Results also identify the policy changes that have been more relevant in motivating adoption of organic practices.