Socio-economic factors that influence the adoption of management practices and technologies by farmers have received wide attention in the adoption literature, but the effects of socio-psychological farmer features such as perceptions and motivations have been analysed to a lesser extent. Using farm household survey data from three regions in northern Ghana, this study explores farmers’ motivations and perceived adoption impediments for three sustainable intensification practices (SIPs): improved maize varieties, cropping system strategies, and combined SIPs (i.e. improved maize and cropping system strategies), and the effect of motivational factors on decisions to adopt SIPs. First, explorative factor analysis (EFA) was used in identifying factors of motivations and impediments for adoption of SIPs. Then, a multinomial logit model was used to analyze the effect of socio-economic farm characteristics and motivational factors on farmers’ decisions to adopt SIPs. EFA identified three motivational factors: personal satisfaction, eco-diversity and eco-efficiency, which differed in importance between the three regions. Across these regions, higher scores for aspects of personal satisfaction were associated with lower interest in improved maize varieties compared to cropping system strategies, while the opposite was true for eco-efficiency which was related to a stronger preference for improved maize varieties. Uncertainty, absence of social support, and resource constraints were identified as impediment factors. The logit model demonstrated that extension services seemed to support the use of improved maize varieties more than the implementation of cropping system strategies. We conclude that motivational factors significantly influence farmer adoption decisions regarding sustainable intensification practices and should be considered systematically in combination with socio-economic farm features and external drivers to inform on-farm innovation processes and supporting policies.

影响农民采用管理实践和技术的社会经济因素在采用文献中受到了广泛关注，但对社会心理农民特征（如观念和动机）的影响却进行了较少的分析。本研究使用来自加纳北部三个地区的农户调查数据，探讨了农民对三种可持续集约化生产实践（SIP）的动机和采用的障碍：改良的玉米品种，种植系统策略和综合的SIP（即改良的玉米和种植系统策略） ），以及动机因素对采用SIP的决策的影响。首先，使用探索性因素分析（EFA）来确定采用SIP的动机和障碍因素。然后，使用多项式logit模型来分析社会经济农场特征和动机因素对农民采用SIP决策的影响。全民教育确定了三个动机因素：个人满意度，生态多样性和生态效率在三个地区之间的重要性不同。在这些地区中，与耕作制度策略相比，个人满意度方面得分较高与对改良玉米品种的兴趣降低有关，而对生态效率而言则相反，这与对改良玉米品种的偏好更大有关。不确定性，缺乏社会支持和资源限制被确定为障碍因素。Logit模型表明，推广服务似乎比实施耕作制度策略更能支持改良玉米品种的使用。我们得出的结论是，激励因素会极大地影响农民采用可持续集约化生产方式的决定，因此应结合社会经济农场特点和外部驱动因素进行系统地考虑，以为农场创新过程和支持政策提供信息。