This mainly a rule of extension officer specialist that must be with a high level of knowledge and culture. The new ideas and innovations that he working on to make his farmers adopt must be related directly to their needs, attitudes and culture, as well as it must be cope with their needs also.

Some leads in the following articles:

Volume 82, Issue 6 Animal Science

December 2006, pp. 783-790

Modelling farmer decision-making: concepts, progress and challenges

G. Edwards-Jones (a1)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/ASC2006112

Published online: 01 March 2007

Abstract

Decisions made by farmers may have large influences beyond the farm boundary, and for this reason they are often of interest to Government and the public. The process of adoption of new technologies and policies has received considerable academic attention over many years, and this has highlighted the rôle of social influences in decision-making. In addition a range of purely economic-based models of farmer decision-making have been developed in order to predict potential changes in agriculture and land use under future policy and market scenarios. Since the 1990s these traditional approaches to understanding decision-making have been supplemented by an increasing input from psychology. As a result of this work it is clear that farmers' decisions are influenced by a range of factors which may be grouped under six headings: socio-demographics of the farmer, psychological make up of the farmer, the characteristics of the farm household, structure of the farm business, the wider social milieu and the characteristics of the innovation to be adopted. This paper presents a short review of the quantitative methods that seek to integrate insights from economics and social science within theoretical frameworks derived from psychology. Suggestions for further work include more empirical study in farmer decision-making related to animal health and welfare, the rôle of the farmers' own health status in decision-making and the formal integration of economic and psychological variables in simulation models.

Reconceptualising the ‘behavioural approach’ in agricultural studies:

a socio-psychological perspective, Journal of Rural Studies

RobJ.F. Burton

Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen AB15 8QH, UK

Online at ftp://s173-183-201-52.ab.hsia.telus.net/Inetpub/wwwroot/DairyScience/Extension/Burton%20behavioral%20appoach%20in%20agricultural%20studies.pdf

Also the book  Progress in Agricultural Geography (Routledge Revivals)

Michael Pacione

Routledge, Jun 3, 2014 - Business & Economics - 284 pages

In the second half of the twentieth century, significant changes were occurring within the agricultural industry, including an increase in efficiency and government intervention, as well as expanded and more complicated patterns of trade. This comprehensive volume, first published in 1986, reflects how these developments challenged the field of agricultural geography. Considering agricultural innovations, farming systems, government policy and land ownership, this title provides an essential background to students with an interest in agricultural methods, distribution and reform.

Sustainability Science

January 2014, Volume 9, Issue 1, pp 17–29

The relative importance of factors influencing the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices: a factor approach for Malaysian vegetable farmersYeong Sheng TeyEmail authorElton LiJohan BruwerAmin Mahir AbdullahMark BrindalAlias RadamMohd Mansor IsmailSuryani Darham

This study develops the understanding of the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices (SAPs) by investigating the relative importance of a set of multidimensional factors in the Malaysian vegetable production sector. A factor approach is deployed to identify explanatory indicators within an integrative framework that is synthesized from the theory of interpersonal behavior and the theory of diffusion of innovation. We achieved this by analyzing a logistic regression model for the adoption of six individual SAPs (conservation tillage, intercropping, cover crops/mulches, crop rotation, organic fertilizers/composts, and integrated pest management). The findings indicate that adoption depends on a range of socio-economic, agro-ecological, institutional, informational, and psychological factors, as well as the perceived attributes of SAPs. Fundamental policy understanding of the issue should, therefore, be multidisciplinary. In addition, standardized coefficients reveal that the impact of statistically significant factors on adoption is unequal. In general, the most influential factor is the asymmetric distribution of resources across geographical locations. This is followed by financial capital and a number of factors, including the workforce size, the usefulness of information, Chinese ethnicity, and the perceived relative advantage of SAPs. Guided by this prioritization understanding, future SAPs promotion now has a better opportunity to target the more important areas. Similar research effort should be made to steer sustainable agriculture internationally.

In Punjab, psychology of farmers is to get more yield by making use of more inputs than required.  Moreover, they are least concerned about the use of natural resources judiciously. Hence, this type of nature of farmers  making difficult for the extension scientists  to make understandable  the farmers about the use of new techniques for the sustenance of agriculture.