Analysis of Socio-cultural Elements Influencing Villagers’ Orientation towards Sustainable Farming (Case Study: Villages of Babolsar County)

Abstract

Extended Abstract 1. INTRODUCTION Agriculture sector takes up a huge share in the economy of developing countries and, considering the extent of activities in this sector, not only are its economic and environmental aspects considered in global policy making, but its social and cultural aspects are as important as the other ones. Simultaneous attention to all three mentioned factors is usually considered as sustainable development. Whereas the majority of extant studies have focused on the first two factors, the present research has emphasized the third aspect, that is the social one. The two major issues dealt with in this paper are as follows: A. understanding the degree of villagers’ orientation towards sustainable farming and B. identifying the socio-cultural factors influencing this orientation. 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Experts in social sciences are of the opinion that human behavior is based on attitudes and values. Initial alternation of attitudes and values is a prerequisite for any change in sustainable behavior. Social, psychological studies of the environment through assessing the link between the attitude and the environmental behavior reveal that attitudes play a role in having a responsible environmental behavior. It is usually said that people’s values are intertwined with environmental attitudes and behavior. Values constitute major goals or criteria in people’s lives and, for them, function as a reference point and a guide. In addition, social trust is one of the preconditions for participating in environmental plans and policies. Social trust makes the awareness of environmental problems and realization of environmental and scientific issues possible. Trust makes people act without any fear of the consequences and accept the policies for risk-taking or support them. Channels of reliable information, too, play an important role in responsible environmental behavior. Government organizations, media and experts provide the necessary environmental information, targeting various audiences. 3. METHODOLOGY Scaling was adopted as the research method. The data was gathered using a self-designed questionnaire. Research population constituted of 7861 of the villagers living in Babolsar county (located in Mazandaran province), among whom 140 villagers were chosen using multistage cluster sampling. Questionnaire’s face validity was determined through the opinions presented by faculty members of Sari Agricultural Science and Natural Resources University and the reliability of the questionnaire was determined to be more than 0.65. Farmers’ gravitation towards sustainable farming was the dependent variable and, in line with the theoretical framework, environmental attitude, environmental values, trust and information sources were chosen as independent variables. 4. DISCUSSION The findings of the study revealed that villagers have a positive and relatively high orientation towards sustainable farming. Evaluation of environmental attitude and villager’s adherence to environmental values was satisfactory, too. The level of social trust and utilization of information sources was moderate among villagers. Among the factors under study, villagers’ income, surface is of agricultural land, age and education had no relationship with their orientation towards sustainable farming. On the contrary, among the social factors social trust and among the cultural factors environmental values were influential in sustainable farming attitudes. 5. CONCLUSION The present study investigated the orientation of villagers of Babolsar County in terms of adhering to sustainability standards in farming, with emphasis on cultural and social factors. According to the findings, through bolstering social trust in rural communities, coordination in actions should be improved and individual capacities in attaining the objectives should be considered. Supporting villagers financially, through institutions operating in the agriculture domain, incorporating villagers’ views and opinions in the renovation of planting and harvesting processes, reinforcing and managing education of local people in terms of environmental risks and pollutions along with changing habits contrary to sustainable development in villages will not materialize unless the way is paved for burgeoning the social trust.