Factors Influencing COVID-19 Vaccination: A Case of Smallscale Farmers in Zambia’s Southern Province Practicing Climate-Smart Agricultural Technologies.

Abstract Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) has significantly impacted the agricultural sector, coupled with climate change. With the availability of COVID-19 vaccines, Zambia's vaccination rate and uptake have been lower in rural areas than in urban areas. This study aimed to examine the factors influencing smallscale farmers who are practicing Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) to get vaccinated. The study used purposive sampling of farmers across Southern province of Zambia. A sample size of 263 farmers were interviewed. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 21. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis were performed. Results show that 100% of the smallscale farmers are aware of COVID-19, 76.8% of the farmers practising CSA are not vaccinated, and only 23.2% are vaccinated against COVID-19. The regression analysis shows that being vaccinated is 0.622 times lower for farmers who change the planting dates due to shifts in rain season than those who don’t (OR 0.537; p = 0.091). Likewise, the vaccination odds are 0.840 times lower for farmers who use hybrid seeds than those who recycle seed (OR 0.432; p = 0.023). However, the odds of being vaccinated are 0.963 times more for farmers who use organic fertilizers than synthetic fertilizers (OR 2.619; p = 0.023). This study concludes that some CSA technologies are significant factors influencing the vaccination of small-scale farmers. The study recommends targeting adopters of organic fertilizer as an ideal entry point among smallscale farmers in rural communities to increase COVID-19 vaccination rates. Further studies should consider other CSA technologies in a different regional context.