After decades of focusing on the uptake of chemical fertilizer, promoting sustainable farming is ranking high on the policy agenda. In Indonesia, intensive cultivation combined with a high reliance on chemical fertilizer have increased soil acidity and reduced the soil organic content of rice fields. Over application of chemical inputs is costly to the environment and expensive for farmers. Organic farming practices offer an alternative, either to substitute part of the chemical inputs or as a complete system.
Yet, training and extension are costly for policy makers and also for farmers who invest their time. It is therefore highly relevant for policy makers to understand whether training has the intended impact and whether farmers are interested to apply the taught information.
For more details, please read the following article:
