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Addressing the challenges of land degradation in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) requires giving greater attention to farmers’ human-nature perspectives, in addition to providing agriculture extension. The concept of transformation provides an opportunity to evaluate the way farmer-to-farmer extension approaches align with farmers’ evolving perspectives. These perspectives can be reflected in smallholder farmers’ human-nature attitudes, offering insights into their values, beliefs, and motivations. However, there is limited understanding of farmers’ attitudes and their contribution to sustainable land management implementation. This chapter presents the results of an exploratory study that examined smallholder farmers’ environmental attitudes and perceptions regarding sustainable land management practices in Dowa district, Malawi. The attitudes and perceptions were assessed using the modified New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale. The typical scale uses fifteen questions to assess perceptions of the environmental attitudes of individual farmers. For this study, these questions were modified into ten questions that were judged to be more relevant to smallholder farmers in Malawi. Data were collected from 80 smallholder farmers in two purposely selected Extension Planning Areas (EPA), using a semi-structured questionnaire. The presence of Farmer Field Schools (FFS) was the primary criterion for selecting the two EPAs. Findings indicate that respondents view landscape and farmland degradation as significant threats to smallholder agricultural production. However, farmers’ perceptions exhibit a multidimensional view of environmental attitudes towards conserving their farmland. The study concludes with recommendations for future strategies to support behavior change in farmer-to-farmer extension approaches for sustainable land management in Malawi. Recognizing farmers’ attitudes will facilitate guidance to integrate human dimensions of land degradation that support the development and upscaling of locally adapted sustainable land management practices.

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Enhancing Attitudes Towards Implementing Sustainable Land Management Practices Through Farmer Field Schools in Rural Malawi: A Snapshot of the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) Scale

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  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2026年

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  • Austin Tibu,
  • Emmanuel Enokye,
  • Bishal K. Sitaula

摘要

Addressing the challenges of land degradation in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) requires giving greater attention to farmers’ human-nature perspectives, in addition to providing agriculture extension. The concept of transformation provides an opportunity to evaluate the way farmer-to-farmer extension approaches align with farmers’ evolving perspectives. These perspectives can be reflected in smallholder farmers’ human-nature attitudes, offering insights into their values, beliefs, and motivations. However, there is limited understanding of farmers’ attitudes and their contribution to sustainable land management implementation. This chapter presents the results of an exploratory study that examined smallholder farmers’ environmental attitudes and perceptions regarding sustainable land management practices in Dowa district, Malawi. The attitudes and perceptions were assessed using the modified New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale. The typical scale uses fifteen questions to assess perceptions of the environmental attitudes of individual farmers. For this study, these questions were modified into ten questions that were judged to be more relevant to smallholder farmers in Malawi. Data were collected from 80 smallholder farmers in two purposely selected Extension Planning Areas (EPA), using a semi-structured questionnaire. The presence of Farmer Field Schools (FFS) was the primary criterion for selecting the two EPAs. Findings indicate that respondents view landscape and farmland degradation as significant threats to smallholder agricultural production. However, farmers’ perceptions exhibit a multidimensional view of environmental attitudes towards conserving their farmland. The study concludes with recommendations for future strategies to support behavior change in farmer-to-farmer extension approaches for sustainable land management in Malawi. Recognizing farmers’ attitudes will facilitate guidance to integrate human dimensions of land degradation that support the development and upscaling of locally adapted sustainable land management practices.