Trade‐offs When Promoting Sustainability: Changing Attitudes or Changing Behaviour?

Summary Many appeals to farmers to adopt sustainable practices are currently relying on pressure factors that may be inducing green and yet unsustainable behaviour. Different trade‐offs are involved in this transition but are normally overlooked. Take for example those sustainable practices that are intended to substitute away from synthetic fertilisers. Being a key input in the production process, promoting farmers’ transition to more sustainable fertiliser practices is challenging and uptake remains low. Recent extremely high fertiliser prices, especially due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and its volatility, have added considerable pressure on farmers to consider fertiliser substitutes. Furthermore, more restrictive environmental regulations, such as reductions in nitrogen allowances, have added another substantial pressure on farmers to look for alternatives. To some extent, high prices and legislation may ‘force’ farmers to increase the adoption of sustainable fertilisers. However, this increased adoption will be superficial and unsustainable if farmers are feeling pushed into these changes. We believe that farmers’ intrinsic motives (e.g. environmental concern, morale, or responsibility) to adopt sustainable fertiliser practices have not yet been engaged in adoption decisions. Therefore, we argue that as soon as synthetic fertiliser prices go down, or if environmental regulations are eased, farmers will go back to their conventional fertiliser practices. Improving farmers' intrinsic motivation could therefore provide a more sustainable approach to reducing synthetic fertiliser application than relying solely on external pressures, an aspect that has received limited attention in policy.