影響台灣農民對永續性農業認知因素之探討-以新社鄉、東勢鎮、卓蘭鎮之梨農為例

Abstract

永續性農業乃在改進傳統慣行農業的弊病，維護農業資源及自然生態的平衡，使農業生產事業得以綿續於未來，福祉世代子孫。台灣之永續性農業發展，時間尚短，因此對永續性農業屬性之認知，至為重要。認知學習是落實推廣採用之首要步驟，本研究乃從農民之背景因素、傳播因素及經濟因素等三大層面深入分析探討，以期發現該等影響因素對環保意識，永續性農業認知之影響程度，並探究各影響因素之間的相關性以及了解台灣農民對永續性農業的認知情形。 本研究以台中縣新社鄉、東勢鎮及苗栗縣卓蘭鎮之山坡地梨農為調查對象，由1,857位梨農隨機抽樣105位樣本戶進行訪問調查，將調查所得資料經由次數百分比、費雪爾氏LSD法、相關分析及逐步迴歸分析等統計分析。研究結果顯示:影響台灣農民對永續性農業認知之主要因素為教育程度，其次為大眾傳播媒介、生活滿足程度，其下依序為經營梨園年數、環保意識、年齡、人際接觸、梨園收益依賴度及專兼業等，其中經營梨園年數、年齡、梨園收益依賴度及專兼業呈負向之影響。 提升農民之教育程度，以非正式之推廣教育為最直接而有效的方法，而加強傳播媒介之內容及頻度對永續性農業認知將助益良多。此外，提升生活滿足程度、降低經營年數、加強環保意識、年輕化、人際接觸的頻繁，減低梨園收益依賴度以及兼業化均有助於永續性農業的認知。

Taiwan has a relatively short history in the development of sustainable agriculture. As cognition is a critical step in the adoption of an innvoation, finding out factors that affect farmers'' cognition of sustainable agriculture will be useful in the promotion and education of the topic. This study approaches the issue from farmers'' background information, communication factors and economic factors to investigate how these factors affect their consciousness of environmental problems, their cognition of sustainable agriculture and how these factors are mutually related. 105 farmers are randomly selected from 1,857 formally registered pear farmers in Shin-shieh and Tung Shih of Taichung County and Tzou-lang of Miao-li county for interviews. Data are analyzed by simple percentage, Fisher''s LSD, ANOVA and Stepwise regression. The results of the analysis show that the most important factor affecting farmer''s cognition of sustainable agriculture is level of education, followed by mass communication media, extent of needs satisfaction. Other factors in decreasing significance are years of growing pears, environmental consciousness, age, interpersonal contacts, dependence of income from pear orchards and if the farmer is full-time. Of these, years of growing pears, age, level of dependence and full-time or not are negatively related to level of cognition. Therefore, this research submits that increasing level ofeducation among farmers seems to be the most direct and effective method. Where formal education is not possible, extension education should be supplemented. Improving the content and frequency of mass media use will also be helpful. In addition, raising level of need satisfaction, strengthening environmental consciousness and cultivation interpersonal channels will be useful measures to increase cognition of sustainable agriculture. It is also suggested that older and full-time farmers who have been growing pears for longer period of time and with greater dependence on pear for income would be in greater need for information about sustainable agriculture.