Soil's Sustainable Governance: The Role of the Value-Identity-Personal Norm Model in Explaining Zanjan County Farmers' Behavioural Intention

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Department of Agricultural Extension, Communication and Rural Development, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran.

Abstract

Farmers' reluctance to adopt conservation practices makes it difficult to implement sustainable soil governance in the country, thereby limiting the effectiveness of technical and command-and-control policies. Given the importance of this issue, this study focused on the psychological dimensions to explain the internal mechanisms that shape farmers' behavioural intention to adopt Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) practices. The statistical population of this descriptive-correlational study consisted of all wheat farmers (6676 people) in Zanjan County, of whom 386 were selected using a multi-stage sampling method. The primary data collection tool was a researcher-developed questionnaire, whose content validity was confirmed through expert opinions and whose construct validity and composite reliability were established through confirmatory factor analysis. The results of the structural equation modelling showed that the Value-Identity-Personal Norm (VIP) model had the necessary validity and effectiveness in predicting farmers' intentions to use ISFM practices. The findings also indicated that biospheric values had a positive and significant effect on pro-environmental self-identity, which, in turn, led to the formation of personal norms. Finally, personal norms were able to explain 45% of the variance in farmers' intention. Overall, based on the findings of this research, it can be concluded that farmers' intention to participate in soil resource conservation is rooted in an ethical-identity pathway. This finding has main implications for governance systems, as it shows that effective policies should activate farmers' internal motivations and moral conscience, moving beyond purely command-and-control approaches.

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