Community awareness and perception on forest-agriculture conversion in Barangay Badiangan, Ajuy, Iloilo

Abstract

The study was conducted to determine the community awareness and perception on forest to agriculture conversion in Brgy. Badiangan, Ajuy, Iloilo. The study made use of the one shot survey design to gather data from 194 out 381 respondents using household survey questionnaire as instrument. All the data collected were coded and processed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 29. Descriptive analyses of the data were made using frequency and percentage distribution and inferential analysis made use of t-test, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and Chi-Square test. The results showed that the respondents are 40 years old and below, married, male, with high school level of education, farmers, with a monthly income of PHP2001 to PHP4000, residents for more than 4 years, landowners, and engaged in agriculture. They have a moderate level of awareness and have a positive perception towards the forest to agriculture conversion. There are no significant difference in level of awareness according to the respondents’ sex, engagement in agriculture, civil status, residency, landownership, however, there are significant differences according to participation in converting parts of the forest into farming, age, educational attainment, monthly income, and area converted. There are no significant differences in perception according to the respondents’ sex, engagement in agriculture, converted parts of the forest into farming, age, civil status, income, residency, ownership, and area converted, but there was significant difference according to respondents’ educational attainment. The level of awareness of the respondent was not significantly related to their perception of forest to agriculture conversion.