As the expected cost of conservation agriculture (CA) inputs becomes an issue for farmers, financial institutions (FIs) play an essential role in promoting CA, a set of agricultural management practices with multiple positive effects. This research aimed to determine influencing factors, to rank challenges, and identify mechanisms for farmers to access agricultural credit for adoption of CA management practices in Cambodia. It was administered by conducting a survey of 242 randomly selected households for face-to-face interviews and conducting key informant interviews from purposive samples of 28 participants in Battambang and Preah Vihear provinces. The results indicated that influencing factors, including the family, adult labor and total farm size, had a positive relationship with farmers’ accessibility to agricultural credit, whereas age was negative. However, education year, farm size for main crops, on-farm income and farm experience were not significantly associated. High interest rates were the significant first-order challenge ranked, followed by document process complication, limited agricultural credit information, limited collateral security and a few other challenges. Support and improved process mechanisms to enhance credit accessibility are required to engage with multiple stakeholders, including farmers, FIs, non-government organizations (NGOs) and government officers. There has been a reduction in agricultural credit interest rates and incentives for importing CA inputs by the government, while provision of information support for agribusiness plans by NGOs which have implemented development project activities were considered as the main support mechanism. An improved process mechanism at the farmers’ level needs to include access to credit with low interest rates and a straightforward documentation process, whereas the FI level requires a business plan for lending decisions. It is evident that high lending rates hinder access to agricultural credit and the improvement of support and improved process mechanisms are necessary to better promote CA practices among farmers in Cambodia.

Adoption of conservation agriculture production systems (CAPS) requires changes in knowledge and resources that affect farmers’ decision-making on agricultural practices, ultimately impacting production, family income, and food security. The effectiveness of CAPS promotion is influenced by demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, promotion mechanisms, agricultural information sources, and extension methods. This research explored the factors influencing the adoption and transfer mechanisms for CAPS and evaluated their impact from early adopters to laggards in Cambodia. A mixed-methods approach was employed and data were collected through face-to-face and in-depth interviews in Battambang and Preah Vihear provinces. The results indicated that the factors influencing the adoption and transfer included gender, age, field numbers related to farm size (i.e., farmers with more fields tended to have larger farm sizes), and off-farm income, all of which had a positive and significant effect. Early adopters improved productivity [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.87–0.92] and food security (95% CI: 0.86–0.92) by 4% compared to laggard farmers. However, there was no significant impact on family income between both groups. Several mechanisms for promoting CAPS including support, transfer, and adoption, required the engagement of relevant stakeholders such as the government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), early adopter farmers, and laggard farmers. Farm-to-farmer initiatives were the most effective mechanism for transferring CAPS, followed by demonstration plots, farm or home visits, workshops or discussions, local agriculture fairs, and office calls. Relatives became the fundamental agricultural information sources, followed by mass media, research institutes, NGOs, the government, and personal experiences. The farm-to-farmer approach should be prioritized for CAPS outreach as farmers tend to trust information from their relatives. Future research should assess the sustained adoption of CAPS post-intervention, as outcome values are projected to increase by over 4%, potentially influencing household income.