Abstract
This study aimed to measure sustainable agriculture perception of poor and better-off banana farmers and its determinants in the Vietnam uplands based on a case study in Quang Tri Province. Stratified sample technique was used to randomly select 300 respondents from 2 upland districts of Quang Tri. The primary data were gathered by using a structured questionnaire with Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.87. The research results showed poor banana farmers’ perception towards sustainable agriculture in Vietnam uplands was significantly lower than that of better-off ones. The study revealed both poor and better-off banana farmers had highly positive perception towards sustainable agriculture regarding protection of agricultural resources and negative effects of agrochemicals on human health; By contrast, both of them had the low perception about problems related to production profits in sustainable agriculture, use of crop residues, and application of modern agriculture technologies. Both farmer groups also had the positive perception of sustainable agriculture in problems related to negative effects of agrochemicals on the environment, input application, crop rotation, product consumption, roles of farmer groups and credit and extension policies. The study ascertained that both farmer groups’ sustainable agriculture perception was affected positively by agricultural programs on TV, education level and agricultural newspaper and books. Besides, the study found that extension courses were the factor that had the negative influence on poor banana farmers’ sustainable agriculture perception.
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