INSTITUTIONAL AND INFORMATIONAL DRIVERS OF ADAPTIVE CAPACITY & LIVELIHOOD RESILIENCE AMONG RURAL FARMERS

Abstract

The rural farmers in Pakistan face climate variability, market uncertainty, production risk, uneven access to institutional and informational resources. This study examined that whether agricultural extension support, digital agricultural information access & institutional trust strengthen livelihood resilience directly & indirectly through adaptive capacity. A quantitative cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2026 with 360 active farmers from rural communities in Sargodha, Punjab, Pakistan. The multi-item measures were adapted from published agricultural extension, digital information, institutional trust, adaptive-capacity, and livelihood-resilience research. The partial least squares structural equation modelling was performed in SmartPLS-4. The digital agricultural information access was the strongest antecedent of adaptive capacity (beta = 0.331), followed by agricultural extension support (beta = 0.286) & trust (beta = 0.244). adaptive capacity strongly predicted livelihood resilience (beta = 0.442) and significantly mediated all three antecedent-resilience relationships. Therefore, model explained 56.0% of adaptive capacity and 63.0% of livelihood resilience. The findings show that rural support systems become resilience-enhancing when farmers can translate information, credibility & extension support into adaptive action.