Beyond adoption: smallholder intentions for sustained engagement with climate-smart agriculture

As climate-induced environmental shifts accelerate worldwide, the transition from initial technology adoption to long-term adaptation remains a critical challenge for climate resilience. While climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is widely advocated as a key solution, the drivers of sustained commitment among smallholder communities, particularly in highly vulnerable, flood-prone ecosystems remain underexplored. This study investigates the adaptive intentions of 350 smallholder farmers in Bangladesh’s haor wetlands, a region characterized by extreme seasonal waterlogging and high sensitivity to climatic shocks. We employ an integrated behavioral framework, adapted from the Decomposed Theory of Planned Behavior (DTPB), to analyze the social and behavioral drivers of sustained adaptation beyond initial uptake. Structural equation modeling reveals that individual attitudes, institutionalized social norms, and perceived behavioral control explain 81.3% of the variance in these long-term intentions, with attitude being the most dominant direct influence. Key findings indicate that farmers’ commitment is primarily driven by the perceived practical benefits of CSA and is significantly strengthened by institutional support through extension services. Importantly, personal efficacy, rather than physical resource availability, emerged as the critical driver of adaptive control, a result that challenges the prevailing resource-centric narratives in regional climate policy. These results indicate that fostering long-term climate resilience requires a strategic shift toward demonstrating the ongoing benefits of CSA, strengthening institutional support, and systematically enhancing farmers’ self-efficacy to ensure effective and sustained climate adaptation in vulnerable communities.