Factors Influencing Innovation Adoption among Small-Scale Farmers in the Caribbean

Abstract

There is a tendency to stereotype Caribbean small-scale farmers and tropical small-scale farmers, more generally, as being resistant to change and innovations. This negative stereotype assumes that the decision of farmers to not adopt an innovation has no rational basis and is due mainly to apathy and a general resistance to change. But the situation is far more complex and small-scale farmers can be innovative. It might even be argued that, generally speaking, the decisions of farmers not to adopt an innovation, to postpone adopting an innovation, or to discontinue the use of a new practice is based on rational considerations in the circumstances of the farmers (Beckford, 2000,2002; Collymore, 1984, 1985; Spence, 1989, 1996; Davis-Morrison and Barker, 1997). Furthermore, there are ample examples that small-scale farmers are engaged in farm-level experimentation and innovation on a daily basis and that this is critical to their survival.