Sustainable agriculture: The study on farmers’ perception and practices regarding nutrient management and limiting losses

Abstract

The paper presents the results of a scientific project focused on limiting nutrient losses from farms by introducing measures to apply fertilizers in a more sustainable way. It is a case study of selected aspects of farm management, focussing on the issue of sustainable agriculture and their tools. The main aim of the study was to analyse and evaluate farmers’ knowledge of the fertilizing process and its aspects, as well as applying sustainable agricultural activities on farms. The study emphasised the importance of nutrient management, as very important for sustainable farming. Also, the links between farmers’ opinions and their activities were analysed. The important issue concerned measures for sustainable farm management introduced on the farms, as well as measures to limit nutrient leaching into groundwater. Twenty-eight farmers from two regions in Poland were interviewed about their perceptions for the case study. In general, the farmers considered their farm activities to be more sustainable than in the past. They demonstrated an understanding of the general idea of sustainable agriculture. However, many farmers still demonstrated a poor grasp of nutrient flows and nutrient balances on farms. Their knowledge and perception was based on general, rather than specific knowledge gleaned from an academic/vocational course. The farmers demonstrated a realization that there were some new, or low-cost measures that could be introduced to make management more sustainable and pro-environmental, but there was still a need for wider adoption of sustainable agricultural practices.

Environmental Awareness of Farmers and Farms’ Characteristics

“…The issues related to environmental awareness of farmers are also present in the studies which focus on searching for factors influencing the perception of the sustainable development and sustainable agriculture concept (Halbrendt, Gray and Chan-Halbrendt, 2012;Hayran, Gul and Saridas, 2018;Kiełbasa, Pietrzak, Uleń, Drangert and Tonderski, 2018;Tatlidil, Tatlidil and Boz, 2008). The issue of perception and environmental awareness was also analysed in the context of practiced agricultural systems.…”

The Urbanization And Diversification Of Farmland Namlea Village

“…The rational calculation to convert land is the impact of the change of society that leads to the urbanization process so that the function of the profession becomes a phenomenon that we can meet in Namlea village. Diversification is not an accidental event, the change of landland to serve as a center of Trade and office to be an evangelizing that land use orientation is no longer on the agricultural sector but has shifted Services and trade sectors [28]. The consequence that must be accepted is the increase in the selling price of agricultural products as well as the availability of staples sourced from agricultural land utilization.…”

Factors Affecting Farmers’ Perception toward Agricultural Land Sustainability in Peri-Urban Areas of Pekalongan City

“…The farmers' perception of the sustainability of agricultural land in the suburbs of Pekalongan City will determine the behavior of farmers to maintain the sustainability of agricultural land (Creemers et al, 2019). The increasingly high level of farmers' perceptions of the sustainability of agricultural land will encourage farmers to more easily adopt new technologies that can improve the sustainability of their farming activities (Kiełbasa et al, 2018).…”