Awareness of Organic Vegetable Production Practices in West Java and Bali, Indonesia

Abstract

One of the challenges in developing organic agricultural production in Indonesia is increasing farmers' awareness of organic farming methods to grow high quality organic products. Recognizing the need for research and development of organic agriculture, the Development of New Bio-Agents for Alternative Farming (DNBAF) project established pilot farms in West Java and Bali in 2005 in order to field test the use of bio-pesticides and compost. Since lack of extension is a constraint in developing organic agriculture in Indonesia, it is important to understand what factors determine farmers' knowledge of organic farming methods. The goal of this study was to determine the factors associated with awareness of organic vegetable production practices including bio-pesticides and compost in West Java and Bali, Indonesia. The study tested the hypothesis that socio-economic variables affect the farmers' familiarity with bio-pesticides and compost. The socio-economic variables examined were: respondent's location, gender, age, education level, household size, number of family laborers, farming experience, farm size, distance to the pilot farm, irrigation sources, land tenure status, net revenue of cabbage, tomato, carrot production, exposure to the pilot farm and any information source groups (media, extension, farmer and commercial groups). Data were collected using a face-to-face survey. In the survey, a total of 627 households of vegetable farmers surrounding the pilot farms in West Java and Bali constituted the population, and 210 farmers selected by a systematic random sampling method were interviewed. The study hypothesis was tested by a binary logit analysis. The binary logit analysis showed that the factors associated with awareness of the practices included: location, gender, educational level, distance to the pilot farms, exposure to the pilot farms, and information sources.