Factors affecting farmers’ adoption of sustainable pest management practices: A scoping review

One of the new Common Agricultural Policy 2023–2027 goals is the reduction of chemical pesticides in agriculture to 50% by 2030, to enhance the environmental sustainability of the agricultural sector. One promising venue entails gradually substituting pesticides with more sustainable products and strategies. However, there is a low adoption level of these strategies. Understanding farmers’ motivation to adopt more sustainable alternatives to conventional pesticides is of utmost importance because of the implementation of new policies. This scoping review gathers and summarises the results of existing studies concerning factors affecting (positively and negatively) farmers’ adoption of sustainable pesticide alternatives. Applying the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews methodology allowed the identification of 53 original papers in 2002–2024. The findings reveal that individual education, knowledge of specific practices, and the government’s role in spreading knowledge and providing subsidies to cover the higher costs are among the most influential factors in farmers’ adoption of sustainable pest management practices. Governments could therefore enhance sustainable practices by promoting training activities, providing financial subsidies and by guaranteeing higher final product prices. Furthermore, more targeted policies are needed because of the specificity of each territory, facing diverse environmental and regulatory conditions. Accordingly, also scientific research plays a key role by studying and providing sustainable pest management alternatives for specific territories.