Implementing wildlife-friendly farming (WFF) practices is a sound approach to sustain ecological restoration of farmland. The aims of the study were to explore factors affecting farmers' implementation of WFF practices on Sado Island, Japan and to consider the policy implications of disseminating such practices. All 5010 farming households on Sado Island, who are distributing rice to Japan Agricultural Cooperatives (JA), were surveyed. In total, 2231 households responded to the questionnaire (response 44.5%). By comparing the attitudes, beliefs, and attributes of non-certified versus certified farmers, we identified key factors affecting farmers' implementation of WFF practices. Compared with non-certified farmers, certified farmers: (i) showed a greater interest in biodiversity and the financial benefits of WFF; (ii) had a larger number of certified farmer friends; (iii) felt many more pressures and expectations from consumers, in particular; and (iv) were not hampered by bad labor or farmland conditions when implementing WFF practices. To further disseminate WFF practices in Sado, we suggest that the information on the effectiveness of WFF on paddy field biodiversity is used in public education, and opportunities for interchanging opinions are set up between non-certified and certified farmers, as well as between farmers and consumers.
NAKAMURA Satoshi, TSUGE Takahiro, OKUBO Satoru, TAKEUCHI Kazuhiko, USIO Nisikawa
. Exploring Factors Affecting Farmers' Implementation of Wildlife-friendly Farming on Sado Island, Japan[J]. Journal of Resources and Ecology, 2014
, 5(4)
: 370
-380
.
DOI: 10.5814/j.issn.1674-764x.2014.04.013
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