Use of the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) model to examine sustainable agriculture in Thailand

doi:10.1016/j.regsus.2022.03.005

Abstract

Abstract:

Sustainable agriculture plays an important role in achieving sustainable development goals with regard to food security and environmental conservation. Sustainable agriculture relies on sustainable farming practices that reduce greenhouse gas production, the wise use of local natural resources, and reductions in negative impacts on the environment and human health. Sustainable farming practices can be driven by various factors, such as the socio-environmental setting, socio-cognitive factors, agricultural institutions, and policy. This study used the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) model to examine farmers’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices in the area of sustainable agriculture. It also considered the factors affecting farmers’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices. Two different socio-environmental contextual settings in Surin Province (a Thai-Cambodian border province) of Thailand are considered. The results show that there are differences between the two different socio-environmental contextual settings with regard to farmers’ sustainable agricultural practice perceptions, knowledge, and attitudes. Farmers’ perceptions of environmental degradation, the number of years of agricultural experience, and agricultural policy drive farmers’ attitudes and individual sustainable practices. Another major result of the study is that individual farmers’ attitudes and practices promote collective sustainable agricultural behaviors. The implication of these findings is that it is necessary to improve the learning ability of individual farmers on the environment and sustainable agricultural practices through social learning and scientific knowledge dissemination, so as to produce sustainable collective development behaviors.

Key words: Socio-environmental context, Individual and collective practices, Sustainable agriculture, KAP model, Thailand

LIAO Xuewei, Thi Phuoc Lai NGUYEN, Nophea SASAKI. Use of the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) model to examine sustainable agriculture in Thailand[J]. Regional Sustainability, 2022, 3(1): 41-52.

Figures/Tables 11

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Variable	Description and unit of measurement
Collective farmers’ sustainable agriculture practices (Y)	The mean frequency of collective sustainable agriculture practices (Five-Likert scale)
Age (X₁)	Age of the respondents (year)
Educational level (X₂)	Education level of the respondents (1=higher than no schooling, 0=no schooling)
Farming system (X₃)	Farming system of the respondents (1=vegetable system, 0=other farming systems)
Total land size (X₄)	Total agricultural landholding size (hm²/household)
Household size (X₅)	Number of total household members
Total household income (X₆)	Total household income in one year (USD)
Farmers’ perceptions of environmental changes (X₇)	Mean farmers’ perceptions of perceived ecological deterioration issues (Five-Likert scale)
Farmers’ perceptions of agricultural institution services (X₈)	Mean farmers’ perceptions of agricultural institution services (ranging from -1 to 1)
Farmers’ sustainable agriculture knowledge (X₉)	Overall farmers’ sustainable agriculture knowledge scores (ranging from 0 to 6)
Farmers’ sustainable agriculture policy knowledge (X₁₀)	Overall farmers’ sustainable agriculture policy knowledge scores (ranging from 0 to 6)
Farmers’ attitudes towards sustainable agriculture (X₁₁)	Average farmers’ attitudes toward sustainable agriculture (Five-Likert scale)
Individual farmers’ sustainable agriculture practices (X₁₂)	Mean individual farmers’ sustainable agriculture practices (Five-Likert scale)

Indicators	Sub-district				Statistic	df	P-value
	Dan (n=118)		Naengmut (n=118)
	Number	Percentage (%)	Number	Percentage (%)
Farming system					χ²=0.327	2	0.849
Rice	38	32%	42	36%
Cassava	41	35%	38	32%
Vegetables	39	33%	38	32%
Gender^*					χ²=1.629	1	0.202
Male	46	39%	57	48%
Female	69	58%	61	52%
Age^*					χ²=9.372	3	0.025
20-35 years	13	11%	3	3%
36-45 years	23	19%	18	15%
46-55 years	39	33%	44	37%
Above 55	36	30%	50	42%
Education level^*					Fisher’s exact test=4.745		0.276
Primary school	79	67%	74	63%
Secondary school	19	16%	12	10%
High school	16	14%	24	2%
Bachelor and above	3	3%	5	4%
No schooling	0	0%	1	1%
Marital status^*					χ²=1.663	2	0.435
Married	101	86%	103	87%
Single	7	6%	3	3%
Separated/devoiced/ widowed	10	8%	11	9%
Types of farming practice^*					χ²=2.344	2	0.310
Sustainable agriculture	19	16%	15	13%
Conventional agriculture	40	34%	50	42%
Mixed agriculture	55	47%	46	39%
Farming experience^*					Fisher’s exact test=2.070		0.591
No more than 5 years	6	5%	2	2%
5-10 years	16	14%	17	14%
11-15 years	5	4%	6	5%
More than 16 years	87	74%	88	75%
Category of land^*					χ²=15.277	3	0.002
Self-owned land	98	83%	97	82%
Rented land	15	13%	23	19%
Illegal owned land	2	2%	8	7%
Household size^*					χ²=10.323	2	0.006
Less than 2 people	7	6%	20	17%
2-5 people	52	44%	75	64%
More than 5 people	35	30%	23	19%

Attitudes towards sustainable agriculture	Indicators	Mean±SD		Mann-Whitney test
Attitudes towards sustainable agriculture	Indicators	Dan	Naengmut	U	z	P-value
Economic viability	Reducing agricultural costs and resource requirements	3.93±0.85	3.19±1.24	4527.00	-4.87	<0.001
	Sustaining economic profitability to maintain farmers’ livelihoods	3.91±0.70	3.85±0.79	6756.50	-0.43	0.670
	Reducing agriculture marketing risks	3.96±0.79	3.75±0.95	6004.50	-4.32	0.070
Stewardship of both human and natural resources in farming systems	Making full use of natural resources	4.12±0.69	4.23±0.96	5957.00	-2.08	0.038
	Contributing to sustainable farming systems	3.85±0.74	2.82±1.29	3682.50	-6.50	<0.001
	Strengthening cooperation and cohesion within the community	3.44±0.10	3.78±1.06	5609.00	-2.61	0.009
Food security	Ensuring food sufficiency at the household level	3.47±0.97	4.49±0.62	2695.00	-8.86	<0.001
Food security	Sustaining productivity	4.10±0.76	3.81±0.96	5817.50	-2.35	0.019
Quality of life for farmers and society	Sustaining healthy and safe of food production	3.91±0.87	4.32±0.88	4906.50	-4.24	<0.001
	Ensuring farmers’ health and safety	3.81±0.92	4.28±0.91	4833.50	-2.08	<0.001
	Feeling happy and proud after practicing sustainable agriculture	3.86±0.83	4.32±0.69	4843.00	-4.87	<0.001
Values and tradition	Developing sustainable agriculture sequentially	3.56±0.72	3.90±1.12	4890.00	-4.02	<0.001
	Feeling difficult to practice sustainable agriculture	3.16±1.35	3.64±1.33	5470.00	-2.82	0.005
	Following a traditional lifestyle	3.98±0.90	4.28±0.91	5456.00	-3.12	0.002

Variable	Individual practices			Collective practices
Variable	β	t	P	β	t	P
Constant (α)	1.756	3.216	0.002	-0.740	-1.353	0.178
Age	0.014	2.985	0.003	-0.004	-0.743	0.459
Household size	0.024	0.578	0.564	0.101	2.460	0.015
Farming system	0.270	2.781	0.006	0.218	2.257	0.025
Educational level	0.274	2.340	0.020	0.029	0.254	0.799
Total land size	0.002	0.416	0.678	0.005	1.433	0.154
Total household income	-4.296E-7	-0.841	0.401	1.701E-7	0.340	0.734
Farmers’ perceptions of environmental changes	0.090	1.543	0.125	0.167	2.911	0.004
Farmers’ perceptions of agricultural institution services	-0.151	-1.434	0.153	-0.205	-1.975	0.050
Farmers’ sustainable agriculture knowledge	0.029	0.759	0.449	-0.057	-1.558	0.121
Farmers’ sustainable agriculture policy knowledge	0.090	2.829	0.005	0.041	1.274	0.204
Farmers’ attitudes towards sustainable agriculture	0.045	0.462	0.645	0.281	2.955	0.004
Individual farmers’ sustainable agriculture practices	-	-	-	0.512	7.225	0.000

Multicollinearity			Cook’s distance	Durbin-Wasson
Variable	Tolerance	VIF	Cook’s distance	Durbin-Wasson
Age (X₁)	0.681	1.468	0.005	1.853
Educational level (X₂)	0.666	1.501
Farming system (X₃)	0.936	1.068
Total land size (X₄)	0.884	1.131
Household size (X₅)	0.890	1.123
Total household income (X₆)	0.918	1.090
Farmers’ perceptions of environmental changes (X₇)	0.808	1.237
Farmers’ perceptions of agricultural institution services (X₈)	0.768	1.301
Farmers’ sustainable agriculture knowledge (X₉)	0.673	1.487
Farmers’ sustainable agriculture policy knowledge (X₁₀)	0.779	1.284
Farmers’ attitudes towards sustainable agriculture (X₁₁)	0.714	1.401	N/A