Farmers’ preferences and attitudes in conversion to organic farming: A lab-in-the-field experiment

Despite rising organic food consumption, the transition to organic farming lags, particularly in developing countries, where only 2% of agricultural land was organic in 2022. To address this, we investigate how farmers’ elicited preferences (risk tolerance, ambiguity tolerance, and time preferences), social factors, and environmental attitudes shape their intention to convert land to organic farming. Using a lab-in-the-field experiment with 311 Vietnamese farmers, we apply a fractional regression model to analyze the intended percentage of land conversion. Results show that higher risk tolerance, higher ambiguity tolerance, future bias, pro-social preferences, perceived behavioral control, and social norms are positively associated with conversion intent, while environmental attitude lacks statistical significance. The revised robustness analysis shows that these patterns are stable when we account for outcome spikes and focal-point responses.