Next Article in Journal
Service Quality Scales and Tourists with Special Needs: A Systematic Review
Previous Article in Journal
Intellectual Capital, Profitability, and Productivity: Evidence from Pakistani Financial Institutions
Article Menu

Export Article

Open AccessArticle

Analyzing Opinions on Sustainable Agriculture: Toward Increasing Farmer Knowledge of Organic Practices in Taiwan-Yuanli Township

Department of Bioenvironmental Systems Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2019, 11(14), 3843; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11143843
Received: 26 June 2019 / Revised: 8 July 2019 / Accepted: 9 July 2019 / Published: 14 July 2019
(This article belongs to the Section Sustainable Agriculture, Food and Wildlife)
  |  
PDF [2674 KB, uploaded 15 July 2019]
  |  

Abstract

Local farmer knowledge is key to sustainable agriculture when organic farming promotes biodiversity conservation. Yet, farmers may not recognize ecosystem service (ES) benefits within their agricultural landscape. Surveys were administered to 113 farmers, and the opinions of 58 respondents toward organic farming were analyzed to identify influential variables when deciding to farm organically. We classified responses by geographic category within a socio-economic production landscape (SEPL), and by social influence categories. With principal component analysis (PCA), a two-scale, four-phased analysis was conducted. Coastal farmers (n = 22) were the most positive towards organic farming trends due to consumer demand. Plains farmers (n = 18) were highly interested in future opportunities for achieving consumer health and food safety objectives. Mountain farmers (n = 18) perceived the most organic transitioning barriers overall, namely irrigation. In all three geographic categories, farming decisions were not primarily related to biodiversity conservation or ES management, but rather to farming community patterns, consumer feedback, and a lack of barriers. Further, farmer opinions toward organic practices were more influenced by their life experiences than by school-taught concepts. Since no previous studies have assessed the knowledge, values, and opinions on organic farming of Taiwan’s west coast farmers from an ES perspective, the proposed approach both identifies farmers’ knowledge and opinions, and verifies a satoyama landscape with PCA results for informed decision making. View Full-Text
Keywords: sustainable agriculture; organic farming; farmer knowledge; farmer opinions; ecosystem services; satoyama sustainable agriculture; organic farming; farmer knowledge; farmer opinions; ecosystem services; satoyama
Figures

Figure 1

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).

Supplementary material

Share & Cite This Article

MDPI and ACS Style

Petway, J.R.; Lin, Y.-P.; Wunderlich, R.F. Analyzing Opinions on Sustainable Agriculture: Toward Increasing Farmer Knowledge of Organic Practices in Taiwan-Yuanli Township. Sustainability 2019, 11, 3843.

Show more citation formats Show less citations formats

Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Related Articles

Article Metrics

Article Access Statistics

1

Comments

[Return to top]
Sustainability EISSN 2071-1050 Published by MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland RSS E-Mail Table of Contents Alert
Back to Top
{"cc_re__cc_re__cc_by_3_0": ["of Organic Practices in Taiwan-Yuanli Township\">\n<meta name=\"dc.creator\" content=\"Joy  R. Petway\">\n<meta name=\"dc.creator\" content=\"Yu-Pin Lin\">\n<meta name=\"dc.creator\" content=\"Rainer  F. Wunderlich\">\n<meta name=\"dc.type\" content=\"Article\">\n<meta name=\"dc.source\" content=\"Sustainability 2019, Vol. 11, Page 3843\">\n<meta name=\"dc.date\" content=\"2019-07-14\">\n<meta name=\"dc.identifier\" content=\"10.3390/su11143843\">\n<meta name=\"dc.publisher\" content=\"Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute\">\n<meta name=\"dc.rights\" content=\"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/\">\n<meta name=\"dc.format\" content=\"application/pdf\">\n<meta name=\"dc.language\" content=\"en\">\n<meta name=\"dc.description\" content=\"Local farmer knowledge is key to sustainable agriculture when organic farming promotes biodiversity conservation. Yet, farmers may not recognize ecosystem service (ES) benefits within their agricultural landscape. Surveys were administered to 113 farmers, and the opinions of 58 respondents toward organic farming were analyzed to identify influential variables when decidi"], "cc_re__cc_re__cc_by_4_0": ["rong>Figure 6</strong><br/>\n                                            &lt;p&gt;Biplot summary of individuals and the top five original variables that contribute most to principal components 1\u20137 for the total study area. Group 1 in blue is coast; group 2 in brown is plain; group 3 in green is mountain.&lt;/p&gt;\n                                                            \"></a></div>\n<div class=\"licenseText in-tab\" style=\"padding: 1em 0;\">\nThis is an open access article distributed under the <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Creative Commons Attribution License</a> which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).\n</div>\n</div>\n<div id=\"tabs-4\" class=\"ui-tabs-panel\">\n<a id=\"suppl_id\" name=\"supplementary\"></a>\n<h1>Supplementary material</h1>\n<div class=\"in-tab\">\n<ul style=\"margin:0; list-style: none;\">\n<li><a name=\"supplementary_file1\"></a><b>Supplementary File 1:</b>\n<p>\n<a href=\"/2071-1050/11/14/3843/s1\">\nPDF-Document\n</a>\n(PDF, 5"], "copyright__copyright__copyright": [" Increasing Farmer Knowledge of Organic Practices in Taiwan-Yuanli Township. Sustainability 2019, 11, 3843.\n\nShow more citation formats Show less citations formats\n\nNote that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.\n\nRelated Articles\n\nArticle Metrics\n\nArticle Access Statistics\n\n1\n\nComments\n\n[Return to top]\nSustainability EISSN 2071-1050 Published by MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland RSS E-Mail Table of Contents Alert\nBack to Top", " Increasing Farmer Knowledge of Organic Practices in Taiwan-Yuanli Township. Sustainability 2019, 11, 3843.\n\nShow more citation formats Show less citations formats\n\nNote that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.\n\nRelated Articles\n\nArticle Metrics\n\nArticle Access Statistics\n\n1\n\nComments\n\n[Return to top]\nSustainability EISSN 2071-1050 Published by MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland RSS E-Mail Table of Contents Alert\nBack to Top", " Increasing Farmer Knowledge of Organic Practices in Taiwan-Yuanli Township. Sustainability 2019, 11, 3843.\n\nShow more citation formats Show less citations formats\n\nNote that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.\n\nRelated Articles\n\nArticle Metrics\n\nArticle Access Statistics\n\n1\n\nComments\n\n[Return to top]\nSustainability EISSN 2071-1050 Published by MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland RSS E-Mail Table of Contents Alert\nBack to Top"]}