UNDERSTANDING FARMER’S BEHAVIOUR ON AGRO-BIODIVERSITY: INTENTION TO ADOPT LANDRACES IN APULIAN FARMS

Agrobiodiversity, as part of the total variability of life forms, represents the diversity of agricultural crop systems. Since the adoption of agrobiodiversity results in a flow of goods and services, the term "genetic resource" illustrates how biodiversity can determine value for food and agriculture. Yet, much of the cultivated genetic diversity has been lost in recent decades, accompanied by a severe loss of agricultural, historical, and cultural capital. Landraces have been preserved to this day thanks to farmers' conservation efforts, which have accompanied the exchange of propagating material and seeds, as well as information on traditions and cultivation techniques. The role of farmers is therefore fundamental to the conservation of genetic resources. This study aims to analyze farmers' willingness and intention to introduce agrobiodiversity in their farms. The factors affecting crop choice may have different dimensions: e.g. economic, social and environmental reasons. Therefore, the extension of a widely accepted theoretical framework to explain human behavior was adopted: the "Theory of Planned Behavior" (TPB). Attitudes, social norms, and perceptions of control, as the three determinants postulated by the TPB, were interacted with other factors such as prior knowledge of landraces, sociodemographic characteristics and attitudes toward various types of valorization processes. The results obtained using structural equation modeling (SEM) will allow to find the road to a more effective valorization for agrobiodiversity conservation that meets farmers' needs and views. The study contributes to identify the factors that can achieve the goals of biodiversity conservation in a more sustainable agriculture.