Abstract
Sustainable agriculture has defined and described in many ways. Despite the diversity in conceptualizing sustainable agriculture, there is a consensus on three basic dimensions of the concept, namely, ecological soundness economically viable and socially acceptable. The dimensions of ecological soundness refers to the preservation and improvement of the natural environment. Environmental issues emerge from the human use of natural resources. Farmers' decisions to adopt a new agricultural technology depend on complex factors. One of the factors is farmers' perception. The objective of this study was to investigate perceptions of paddy farmers towards applying sustainable agricultural technologies and to identify factors influencing their perceptions. The results of the study show that farmers had good perception about sustainable technologies such as diversification and rotation, application of manure but in general, they preferred modern technologies to local ones. They perceived agrochemicals as the best means to combat against pests and to increase rice production. Their perception of intangible impacts of modern technologies was weak. It was found that there should be a relationship between a numbers of socio-economic factors, such as human capital factors, information sources use, extension participation and landholding size and the perception towards selected sustainable agricultural technologies. Also, educational level, contact with agricultural experts and extension participation were best predictors of their perceptions.
Highlights
Rice is the world’s most important food crop and a primary source of food for more than half of the world’s population[18]
As Roling and Pretty[30] argued, during the past fifty years, agricultural development policies have been remarkably successful at emphasizing external inputs, such as pesticides, inorganic fertilizers, and tractors as the means to increase food production
This paper aims to investigate of paddy farmers’ perceptions towards applying sustainable agricultural technologies and how they perceive these technologies and to identify factors influencing their perceptions
Summary
Rice is the world’s most important food crop and a primary source of food for more than half of the world’s population[18]. As Roling and Pretty[30] argued, during the past fifty years, agricultural development policies have been remarkably successful at emphasizing external inputs, such as pesticides, inorganic fertilizers, and tractors as the means to increase food production. Pesticides have replaced biological, cultural and mechanical methods for controlling pests, weeds and diseases; inorganic fertilizers have substitute for livestock manures, composts, and nitrogen fixing crops; and fossil fuels have substituted for locally generated energy sources. This argument supported by several empirical studies[5,26,27,28]
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