Farmer's perception, knowledge and attitude toward the use of biochar for agricultural soil improvement in Amphawa district, Samut Songkhram province

Abstract

Most research on biochar has focused either on the mechanistic or the biophysical aspects, and there has been relatively little research into the social applicability and acceptance of biochar as a soil enhancer in agriculture. Here, this research aimed 1) to study the current condition regarding the utilization of biochar and 2) to study farmer's perception, knowledge and attitude toward the use of biochar for agricultural soil improvement for farmers in Amphawa District. The result of the research shows as following. In the Amphawa district area, bio- char are rarely applied to agriculture, despite its effective. This is due to the farmer's lack of knowledge on the bio-char manufacturing method and the lack of awareness of the benefits in using biochar to fertilize the soil for agriculture. Most farmers viewed the publicized media about the usage of biochar to enhance the soil for agriculture, as insufficient (94.23 %). In which, the medias, that are known for using biochar as a soil enhancer for agriculture, are only the public relation agency's media (11.54 %) and the newspapers (1.92 %). They want more support from the governmental sector in publicizing about the usage of biochar as a soil enhancer for agriculture. Since, the majority have the shallowest knowledge and understanding of the biochar's usage as a soil enhancer in agriculture (76.92 %). Attitudes toward the use of biochar as a soil enhancer in agriculture can be summed up as, the overall Attitudes is in the satisfied level (x = 3.99 ; s.d. = 0.46).