SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE INVESTING AND THE PERFORMANCE OF CLIMATE-SMART AGRICULTURAL PROJECTS

Abstract

This study aimed to establish how socially responsible investing promotes the performance of climate-smart agricultural projects. Wani et al. (2024), investigating the Middle East and North Africa, found environmental quality depends on economic growth. However, to realize economic development in a country where agriculture is the backbone of the economy, stakeholders need to promote the value of the agricultural products and reduce post-harvest loss through value addition. This study anchors on game theory, which opines that the economy is not fixed. Hence, agricultural stakeholders need to be innovative and progressive. A descriptive research design was employed to study two climate-smart agriculture projects, with a population of 516 small-scale farmers. The study found a relationship between socially responsible investing and the performance of climate-smart agricultural projects. However, the interaction between value addition and socially responsible investing had minimal influence. The hurdle was underlying factors such as poverty and insecurity. Consequently, it is imperative to have policies and stakeholders prioritize and promote provision of the scarce public and private goods to enhance small-scale farmers’ resilience and propel them from subsistence to commercial production for value addition of surplus food.