Topic: The Resource Bridge: A Socioeconomic Moderator Model for Sustainable Agricultural Adoption. Evidence from Smallholder Systems in Nigeria

The global scaling of sustainable agricultural practices (SAPs) is persistently hindered by an intention-action gap among farmers, particularly in resource-constrained contexts. Prevailing adoption theories often treat psychological drivers and socioeconomic constraints in isolation, limiting their explanatory power. This study bridges this divide by developing and testing an integrated “Resource Bridge” model that synthesizes the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), and Resource-Based View (RBV). We posit that socioeconomic resource endowments are critical moderators of the core psychological pathways to adoption. The model was tested via Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) on survey data from 312 smallholder farmers in Northwestern Nigeria, a region emblematic of sub-Saharan Africa’s adoption challenges. Nested model comparison showed the final model (with moderation) provided excellent fit (χ2/df=2.32, CFI=0.937, RMSEA=0.061) and substantially improved explanatory power. While environmental awareness (β=0.45) and perceived usefulness (β=0.32) were key drivers, socioeconomic factors (SEF) significantly moderated the awareness-attitude (β=0.36) and attitude-intention (β=0.34) pathways. Crucially, the variance explained in adoption intention increased by 10 percentage points from 58% in the baseline model to 68% in the final moderated model quantifying the moderating role of resources. Simple slopes analysis confirmed these psychological pathways were only significant for farmers with medium-to-high resource levels. The study validates the core thesis that attitudes and awareness are necessary but insufficient without enabling socioeconomic resources. The “Resource Bridge” model offers a universal policy framework: interventions must concurrently cultivate pro-adoption attitudes and directly alleviate structural economic barriers to effectively translate farmer intention into widespread sustainable practice adoption.