Farmers’ Experiences with Eco-Friendly Innovations in Flood-Prone Regions
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Abstract
Climate-related disasters, particularly recurring floods, increasingly threaten agricultural sustainability and rural livelihoods, making eco-friendly innovations essential for long-term resilience. Within this context, understanding how farmers perceive, interpret, and integrate sustainable agricultural practices in flood-prone regions has become a crucial yet underexplored area of research. This study aims to examine the lived experiences of farmers in adopting eco-friendly agricultural innovations and to identify the subjective factors that influence their decisions and adaptation strategies. Here, we apply a descriptive phenomenological approach to explore the essence of farmers’ lived experiences, uncovering how they interpret environmental challenges and negotiate between traditional practices and innovative solutions. Data were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with twelve smallholder farmers residing in flood-prone areas and analyzed using thematic reduction techniques to identify shared meanings and experiential patterns. The findings reveal five interconnected themes: (1) tension between tradition and innovation, (2) emotional distress triggered by recurring floods, (3) reliance on collective learning and peer-based knowledge, (4) negotiation of agency under institutional pressures, and (5) redefining sustainability through personal and cultural values. These results demonstrate that adopting eco-friendly practices is a dynamic meaning-making process rather than a purely technical decision. The study advances a context-sensitive understanding of innovation adoption by prioritizing subjective experiences, offering insights for designing policies and interventions that respect local knowledge and cultural identities. These findings provide a foundation for future research exploring diverse socio-ecological contexts and integrating mixed-methods approaches to strengthen links between personal narratives and measurable sustainability outcomes.
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