Adoption of sustainable certification in West Borneo palm oil farmers: The role of environmental concern

Abstract

Sustainable certificates are developing in the palm oil industry along with the issue of sustainable development in agriculture. Farmers, as the main palm oil producers, are advised to adopt sustainable certificates. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the determinants of the intention to adopt palm oil sustainable certification in West Borneo farmers. The theory of planned behavior was applied, namely the attitude toward behavior, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control, with environmental concern as an extended variable. One hundred seventy independent farmers from several regencies in the West Borneo Region were analyzed using structural equation modeling and partial least squares. The results showed that the attitude toward behavior, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control had a significant effect on the intention to adopt the sustainable certification. However, environmental concern only influenced attitude toward behavior, with no significant effect on subjective norm and perceived behavioral control. This study implies that factors other than environmental concern significantly affect the intention to adopt sustainable certification in palm oil smallholders.