Abstract
The lack of efforts in promoting conservation technologies to farming communities in the last few decades made the area of critical land, particularly over Java Island, increased by 28.33% during 2009–2014. Another cause of this condition is the unsatisfactory results of the existing land management techniques. The decision to conserve degraded lands should be supported by environmental awareness among the farmers. This study aims to determine (1) the level of environmental awareness and the motivation of farmers to conserve critical lands, (2) the motivation of farmers to adopt conservation techniques, and (3) the effect of environmental awareness on motivation in adopting conservation techniques in three agro-ecological zones, i.e., the highlands, lowlands, and coastal areas. The number of respondents was 600 farmers with an equal number of samples for each zone. The analytical tools used were the crosstab, Spearman correlation, and the structural equation modeling (SEM). The first key finding is that the agro-ecological zone difference determined the level of environmental awareness and farmers’ motivation to implement conservation. The second key result is that the coastal area farmers had higher motivations to adopt conservation techniques than the other two agro-ecological zones. We also observe that the farmers who had a high level of environmental awareness will have a strong motivation to adopt conservation techniques. Overall, providing highland farmers with an understanding and practical training on conservation is essential to increase their conservation motivation that has been possessed and implemented by most of the coastal and lowland farmers.
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The authors thanked the Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education for financial support through BPPDN scholarship. The authors also greatly appreciate three anonymous reviewers with their invaluable inputs and suggestions to improve the quality of this paper.
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Appendices
Appendix
Appendix 1. Questionnaire
III. Environmental Awareness (Farmer’s Ability, Farmer’s Opportunity, and Farmer’s Perception) on Motivation to Adopt Conservation Techniques
1. Statement for the ability variable
Statement | Strongly agree | Agree | Neutral | Disagree | Totally disagree |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
X1.1. I took formal education at a certain level | |||||
X1.2. I attended training on critical land conservation activities | |||||
Type of training? Who organized the training? | |||||
X1.3. I understand the technical guidelines for critical land activities | |||||
2. Statement for the opportunity variable
Statement | Strongly agree | Agree | Neutral | Disagree | Totally disagree |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
X2.1. I get support from the government when doing critical land conservation | |||||
Where does the support come from? in what form? | |||||
X2.2. I get support from non-governmental organizations in conservation activities | |||||
Where does the support come from? in what form? | |||||
X2.3. I can sell the harvest obtained from critical land conservation activities |
3. Statement for the perception variable
Statement | Strongly agree | Agree | Neutral | Disagree | Totally disagree |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
X3.1. I have an overview of how to do critical land conservation | |||||
X3.2. I have an understanding of conservation activities | |||||
X3.3. In my opinion, it is important to carry out conservation activities to improve the quality of damaged agricultural land |
4. Statement for the motivation variable
Statement | Strongly agree | Agree | Neutral | Disagree | Totally disagree |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Y1.1. I participate in land conservation activities because I want to increase my income | |||||
Y1.2. The community’s ability to manage the critical land needs recognition from the government | |||||
Why? ………… | |||||
Y1.3. I participate in land conservation activities because I want to conserve agricultural land | |||||
Why ?…… | |||||
IV. Types of conservation activities.
Please fill in according to the application conditions in the field. Choose A, B, or C and fill in the column operating costs following options A, B, or C.
No | Types of conservation activities | The degree of application of conservation | Operating costs (Rp/year) |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Planting plants that cover the ground | > 50% > 25–50% 0–25% | ……………………… ……………………. …………………………. |
2 | Crop rotation | > 50% > 25–50% 0–25% | …………………………… …………………………. …………………………… |
3 | Organic fertilizer | > 50% > 25–50% 0–25% | …………………………… …………………………… …………………………… |
4 | Soil processing according to contours | 50% > 25–50% 0–25% | …………………………… …………………………… …………………………… |
5 | Drainage / irrigation repair | > 50% > 25–50% 0–25% | …………………………… …………………………… …………………………… |
6 | Mulch | > 50% > 25–50% 0–25% | …………………………… …………………………… …………………………… |
7 | Mounding | > 50% > 25–50% 0–25% | …………………………… …………………………… …………………………… |
8 | Terrace reinforcement plants | > 50% > 25–50% 0–25% | …………………………… ……………………………. ……………………………. |
9 | Utilization of plant remnants | > 50% > 25–50% 0–25% | ……………………………. ……………………………… ……………………………. |
Appendix 2 The result of the goodness of fit for each model
Criteria | Cut-off value | Model results in various agro-ecological zones | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Highland | Coastal | Lowland | ||
Chi-squared | Small | 94.808 | 109.886 | 93.258 |
p-value | ≥ 0.05 | 0.372 | 0.000 | 0.386 |
CMIN/DF | ≤ 2.00 | 1.042 | 1.691 | 1.036 |
RMSEA | ≤ 0.08 | 0.015 | 0.059 | 0.013 |
GFI | ≥ 0.90 | 0.951 | 0.945 | 0.953 |
AGFI | ≥ 0.90 | 0.907 | 0.855 | 0.911 |
TLI | ≥ 0.95 | 0.992 | 0.959 | 0.993 |
CFI | ≥ 0.95 | 0.995 | 0.983 | 0.996 |
Processed Primary Data (2018).
Appendix 3 The results of an analysis of the correlation of environmental awareness and the motivation to do conservation
Correlations (Highland)
Environmental awareness | Motivation to do conservation | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Spearman’s rho | Environmental awareness | Correlation coefficient | 1.000 | .654** |
Sig. (2-tailed) | .000 | |||
N | 200 | 200 | ||
Motivation to do conservation | Correlation coefficient | .654** | 1.000 | |
Sig. (2-tailed) | .000 | |||
N | 200 | 200 |
**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed)
Correlations (Lowland)
Environmental awareness | Motivation to do conservation | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Spearman’s rho | Environmental awareness | Correlation coefficient | 1.000 | .506** |
Sig. (2-tailed) | .000 | |||
N | 200 | 200 | ||
Motivation to do conservation | Correlation Coefficient | .506** | 1.000 | |
Sig. (2-tailed) | .000 | |||
N | 200 | 200 |
Correlations (Coastal)
Environmental awareness | Motivation to do conservation | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Spearman’s rho | Environmental awareness | Correlation Coefficient | 1.000 | .586** |
Sig. (2-tailed) | .000 | |||
N | 200 | 200 | ||
Motivation to do conservation | Correlation Coefficient | .586** | 1.000 | |
Sig. (2-tailed) | .000 | |||
N | 200 | 200 | ||
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed)
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Maria, Irham, Hartono, S. et al. The effect of environmental awareness on motivation in adopting farming conservation techniques in the various agro-ecological zones: a case study in critical land of Java Island, Indonesia. Environ Dev Sustain 24, 1878–1896 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-021-01512-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-021-01512-y