Improving Sustainable Agriculture Adoption Among Smallholder Coffee Farmers in Indonesia: Does Entrepreneurial Orientation Play a Role?

Abstract

The adoption of sustainable agriculture practices is essential for enhancing the environmental sustainability and long-term productivity of smallholder coffee farming systems. While previous studies have mainly focused on technical and institutional factors, the role of farmers' entrepreneurial orientation has received relatively little attention. This study examines how different dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation influence the adoption of sustainable agriculture practices among smallholder coffee farmers in Aceh Tengah, Indonesia. Data were collected from 156 coffee-farming households using a multi-stage random sampling approach. Sustainable agriculture adoption was measured as the total number of practices adopted, and the relationship was estimated using a Poisson regression model, with an ordered probit model employed as a robustness check. The results show that innovativeness (β = 0.275, *p* < 0.05) and proactiveness (β = 0.271, *p* < 0.05) are positively associated with the adoption of sustainable agriculture practices, whereas competitive aggressiveness (β = −0.205, *p* < 0.01) has a negative effect. In contrast, risk-taking and autonomy are not statistically significant. The robustness analysis using the ordered probit model produces consistent results, confirming the reliability of the main findings. These results suggest that encouraging farmers to be more innovative and proactive may be just as important as providing technical support. At the same time, stronger market incentives are needed to align competitiveness with sustainability goals better. The study also contributes to the entrepreneurial orientation literature by showing that its individual dimensions influence sustainable agriculture adoption in different ways, rather than having a uniform effect.