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This article explores the impact of farmers' livelihood assets and adaptation approaches on livelihoods. We proposed a new paradigm for the sustainable livelihoods of smallholders based on the grounded theory, to exploit seven household assets and used mixed methodological approaches of growers' livelihood assets and climatic adaptation strategies based on farmers' livelihood concerns in Sindh province of Pakistan and to better understand smallholder farmers' sustainable livelihoods and applied a partial least square path modeling. Considering central critical paths, psychological assets (PsyA) entail mediational factors into the sustainable livelihoods index. The findings show that the essential support of the livelihood of farmers' social, cultural, economic, and human assets positively impacts sustainable livelihoods, though physical and natural assets depict a nonsignificant impact on SLI. However, human and financial assets show comparatively substantial effects on smallholders' adaptation strategies; consequently, physical, social, and natural assets reveal significant impacts on farmers' livelihoods. The study further indicates that PsyA can, directly and indirectly, boost the human and physical assets and exploit the farmers' sustainable livelihoods index successfully. Lastly, this research proposed policy suggestions for poverty reduction and sustainable livelihoods of small-scale growers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adoption of certified and improved high-yielding crop varieties is important avenue for increasing agricultural productivity and improving the living standard of the farmers in developing countries. The main objective of the current study was to examine factors affecting adoption of improved rice varieties by smallholder farmers in Northern Sindh, Pakistan. The random sampling technique was used to collect data from 220 smallholder rice farmers through the face to face interview. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and probit regression model. The empirical results showed that year of education ( P ≤ 0.093), farming experience ( P ≤ 0.043), soil quality ( P ≤ 0.077), farm machinery ownership ( P ≤ 0.000), access to market information ( P ≤ 0.055) and contact with extension agents ( P ≤ 0.006) had significantly positive influence on adoption of improved rice variety, while age ( P ≤ 0.053) had significantly negative effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The climatic events and increasing population are impacting the food system's resilience. The significance of a looming food crisis may be more pronounced in a country like Pakistan. Therefore, to manage farm production sustainably, this research infers the Value-Belief-Norm (VBN) theory to analyze small growers' pro-environmental adaptation and mitigation behaviors on the farm. The data of 250 samples were collected from the Sindh province of Pakistan. We applied the partial least squire modeling (PLS-SEM) to examine the farmers' pro-environmental behaviors towards climate change mitigation and adaptation practices in farm productions. The results provide evidence that farmers' pro-environmental personal norms R2(80.2%), explain mitigation attitudes (41.2%), and (29.0%) adaptation behaviors of growers. All antecedents of VBN theory reveal robustness and significantly positive relationships except for egoistic values. Thus, pro-environmental personal norms predicted the farmers-orientation behaviors significantly toward the climate variability adaptation practices and mitigation attitudes. Moreover, findings indicate that the VBN theory enacts well when expounding altruistic values and biospheric values of farmers' mitigation attitudes and adaptation behaviors. Despite guaranteeing food security, this research suggests designing policy tools to encourage small growers' pro-environmental behaviors in response to climatic changes to increase sustainable agricultural production in the region. • This research used the Value-Belief-Norm (VBN) theory in the context of climate change mitigation and adaptation behaviors in farm production. • This study empirically examines the determinants of growers' pro-environmental personal norms towards mitigation and adaption via partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). • The VBN theory provides evidence that farmers' pro-environmental personal norms R2(80.2%) explain mitigation attitudes (41.2%) and (29.0%) adaptation behaviors toward climate change. • Thus, pro-environmental personal norms predicted the farmers-orientation behaviors significantly toward the climate variability adaptation practices and mitigation attitudes. • This study implicates future policies that promote effective and sustainable pro-environmental behavioral changes in agriculture while ensuring regional food security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]