This study investigates the factors that affect farmers’ access to agricultural credit and its role in adopting improved agricultural technologies in the rain-fed zone of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Pakistan. Using logistic models, we assess and compare the relative role of farmers’ socioeconomic attributes in their access to credit and adoption strategies. The results indicate a moderate positive association between farmers’ access to agricultural credit and their adoption of improved agricultural technologies. The binary logit model’s results indicate that farmers with a large-sized farm, high farm income, better access to information, and large physical asset ownership showed a positive influence on credit access. However, farming experience showed a negative effect on farmers’ access to agricultural credit. Regarding farmers’ credit sources, this study found that asset-rich farmers with more farming experience and better access to information relied more on banks than on input providers and informal credit sources. Similarly, older farmers with more education, larger farm sizes and high farm income were more likely to have borrowed from input providers than banks. We conclude that the role of the effective provision of information on credit and agricultural technology is imperative and requires separate policies that are specifically aimed at different groups of farmers with different socioeconomic and farm-related characteristics.

Climate change is a severe threat to the agricultural sector in general and to rainfed farming in particular. The aim of this study was to investigate the factors that can potentially affect the adaptation process against climate change. This study focused on wheat farmers and farming systems in the rainfed agroecological zone of Pakistan. Farmers’ data related to climate change fatalism, the availability of climate-specific extension services, socioeconomic and institutional variables, and farm characteristics were collected. A logit model to assess farmers’ decisions to adopt an adaptation measure and a multinomial logit model to assess their choice of various adaptation measures were used. The results showed that fatalistic farmers were unlikely to implement climate change adaptation measures. The variables related to the climate-specific extension services, including farmers’ participation in training on climate-resilient crop farming and the availability of mobile communication-based advisory services, had highly significant and positive impacts on farmers’ decisions and their choice of adaptation measures. Input market access and tractor ownership also had positive and significant impacts on farmers’ decisions to adapt and their choice of adaptation measures. This study highlights the need to improve rainfed-wheat farmers’ education levels to change their fatalistic attitudes towards climate change. Furthermore, government action is needed to provide climate-specific extension services to ensure sustainable production levels that will ultimately lead to food and livelihood security under a changing climate.

This paper explores community perspectives on forest landscape restoration (FLR) initiatives and their impacts on ecosystems, livelihoods and social cohesion. The study is based on data collected from 08 focus group discussions (FGDs) conducted in local communities involved in FLR activities. A coding process was used to identify key themes and patterns that shed light on the impacts of FLR. The results show that FLR initiatives have led to social cohesion and conflict resolution, including the establishment of community-based organizations (CBOs), the involvement of community volunteers in various FLR tasks, a cooperative/collaborative approach to forest management, conflict resolution, and the empowerment of local communities. In addition, the results of the study showed that FLRs have successfully regenerated and restored the forest ecosystem, including restoration of biodiversity, plant diversity, improvement of animal populations and livestock health, soil health, and water quality. Ecosystem restoration has improved community livelihoods, including increased crop productivity, access to education, affordable health care, improved economic conditions, and food security. Based on the findings, policy recommendations include strengthening support for community FLR initiatives, promoting stakeholder collaboration, and promoting social equity.

Adoption of agroforestry in the early spring under the green growth initiative programs, such as the Billion Trees Afforestation Project, has positively impacted crop productivity and plantation success in Pakistan. However, the timely adoption decision of agroforestry in the Hindu Kush Himalayan is still low, particularly among smallholders. Using a mixed-method approach, we examine the factors influencing smallholder households and community-level timely agroforestry adoption decisions. Findings show that the early and later decision-makers farmers had agricultural lands on riversides and primarily adopted agroforestry to protect their crops from devastating effects of winds and floods. In contrast, late adoption decision-makers adopted agroforestry for income diversification. Results of our logit model show that several household and community-level factors influence smallholders’ timely adoption of agroforestry. The factors that positively affect the timely adoption of agroforestry include age-related factors, education, and the establishment/existence of functional community-based organizations. In contrast, political conflicts and tenure insecurity negatively affect smallholders’ timely adoption of agroforestry. In-depth interviews with Village Development Committees members revealed that terrace farming, farms on riversides, communities without access to other energy sources, population growth, and low farm acreage ensured the timely adoption of agroforestry. The policy recommendations include strengthening collaborative efforts among community members, especially engaging educated old-aged farmers (elders of traditional communities) to increase adoption rates and land tenure security to ensure timely agroforestry adoption under the newly launched 10-BTAP.

Scientific evidence suggests that there is room for eradicating poverty and hunger by increasing food production through the adoption of modern agricultural practices by farmers. This study aimed, first, to explore the relationship between the farmers’ awareness and adoption of improved wheat varieties. Second, it aimed to find the key factors that govern the farmers’ awareness and adoption of extension-recommended innovations in the rainfed cropping system of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Data were collected from 395 respondents. A binary logit model was used to analyze the effect of the farmers’ socioeconomic and farm-specific characteristics on their awareness and adoption of the extension-suggested wheat varieties. Moreover, qualitative data from 40 key informants were collected for in-depth analysis. The results show a strong association between the farmers’ awareness of a technology (improved wheat varieties) and its adoption. The results of the logit model show that their extension contacts, income from agriculture, and access to credit positively affected the farmers’ awareness, whereas their education and household sizes negatively affected their awareness. Moreover, the factors that positively influenced the farmers’ decision to adopt the technology included the extension contact, the confidence in the extension, the risk-bearing attitude, and the credit access, whereas the household size and education negatively affected it. The results of the key informant interviews reveal that the high incidence of poverty, the low soil fertility, the farmers’ inability to make effective decisions, the lack of accurate weather predictability in the rainfed farming system, the lack of government interest, and the asymmetric information in the inputs markets contributed to the farmers’ low levels of awareness and to their poor adoption of improved agricultural technologies. These results indicate that any intervention aimed at the awareness and adoption by farmers of improved technologies, such as new wheat varieties, should recognize the heterogeneity in the farmers’ socioeconomic and farm-specific characteristics.