Adoption and Abandonment of Organic Farming: An Empirical Investigation of the Irish Drystock Sector

Abstract

The adoption and possible abandonment of organic farming has yet received little attention in the literature. As time plays an important role in explaining farming decisions, a dynamic econometric framework, namely duration analysis, is used. The probability of entry to and exit of the organic drystock sector is modeled considering a wide range of economic and non‐economic factors. Organic support payments emerge as important driving factor of adoption over time. The empirical results also highlight the importance of environmental and risk attitudes, farming experience as well as influence of other organic farmers on the probability to adopt organic farming; whereas decisions to abandon organic farming appear to be mainly driven by economic and structural factors. Farmers who have an off‐farm job are more likely to abandon organic farming and a more ‘intensive’ farm system has a positive effect on staying organic.adoption, abandonment, organic farming, duration analysis, economic and non‐economic factors., Farm Management,