http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6759-1488
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ABSTRACT
Purpose: To provide farmers with access to salient knowledge on sustainability that could contribute positively to farmers’ livelihoods, there is a need for knowledge facilitators. This paper examines the role of public extension workers as boundary workers in Indonesia on sustainable agriculture and challenges around them.
Design/methodology/approach: To identify sustainability perspectives, this research uses Q-methodology which analyzes individual perspectives on sustainability, their differences, and similarities. This research also employs focus group discussions and interviews. In three regions in Indonesia.
Findings: Q-method resulted in two perspectives. The technologists perceive sustainable agriculture as food security and the use of organic pesticides. They also believe that the responsibility for sustainable agriculture lies with extension workers and governments. The environmentalists believe the concept of sustainability implies the active prevention of environmental degradation. They also believe that everybody should take responsibility for sustainability. The paper determines that boundary work needs highly motivated extension workers; the ability to gain trust from farmers; and government support.
Theoretical implication: This paper contributes to the literature on boundary work by connecting the concept of boundary work to agricultural extension.
Practical implication: The results may be used as inputs for Indonesian policymakers to develop a guideline on sustainable agriculture for extension workers.
Originality/value: In current studies on extension workers in developing countries, an analytical framework which employs the concept of boundary work is hardly found. Boundary work is a relevant concept to depict challenges extension workers are confronted with when brokering. Q-methodology aims to obtain individual perspective on a particular issue. This research provides insight on individual perspectives of extension workers on sustainable agriculture.
Acknowledgments
The authors are very grateful to Pieter Glasbergen, Bustanul Arifin, Purwo Santoso, Pieter Leroy, and Ari Darmastuti for their valuable comments and input to (earlier versions of) this paper. This research was conducted as part of the joint research project on Social and Economic Effects of Partnering for Sustainable Change in Agricultural Commodity Chains in Indonesia.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Atika Wijaya is a lecturer and researcher in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Semarang State University in Indonesia. She received her Doctoral’s degree from the International Centre for Integrated assessment and Sustainable development (ICIS) at Maastricht University, the Netherlands. Her research interest includes governance, sustainable agriculture, governmental policies and sustainable development.
Astrid Offermans is a post-doc in the joint research project on Social and Economic Effects of Partnering for Sustainable Change in Agricultural Commodity Chains in Indonesia. She holds a Ph.D. in sustainability science; more specifically in integrating social perspectives into a methodology to assess the social robustness of water management strategies (2012). She is involved in education as teacher, course coordinator and lecturer at ICIS.
ORCID
Atika Wijaya http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6759-1488
Notes
1. Which was the case for Decree number 130-67/2002 on the functions of local governments in extension (World Bank Citation2007).
2. We acknowledge that a larger ratio between statements and respondents would have increased the possibility to find correlations between sorters.
3. We decided to organize FDGs for extension workers instead of interviews to also provide a platform to learn about how the extension workers translate knowledge about sustainable agriculture to the farmers and the challenges they experience in their job.
4. It happened twice that respondents answered this question in an affirmative way (i.e. the role of agricultural tools and technology and the danger of pesticides). However, as we believe the topics have been sufficiently covered by statements in the Q-sort (particularly statement 19, 36 and 20), we did not adapt our Q-sort.
5. This is not surprising given the earlier mentioned ratio between statements and respondents.
6. Eigenvalue (characteristic value) is the sum of squared factor loadings for that factor (Watts and Stenner Citation2005, 87). The differences in Eigenvalues of the two selected factors were 15.5564 and 5.5923.
7. In the last decade, the Indonesian government issued regulations related to agriculture and extension. Law 23/2006 on extension for agriculture, fisheries, and forestry is giving certainty on the status of extension workers as a profession and functional position in governmental organizations. However, there is no uniformity yet on the implementation of this law at the local level. Some regions established an Extension Agency, but other regions still incorporate extension with the Agency of Agriculture or with the Agency of Food Security. In addition to that, the Law 23/2014 (PP) 18/2016 on regional instruments (Perangkat Daerah) implied restructuring organizational local governments and budget allocations. The way in which the restructuring is shaped, depends on the priorities set by local governments. Extension workers are worried that this might alter their rights and obligations as their ‘home’ might be merged with other offices. During our fieldwork in the three districts, we indeed observed different conditions of the institutional restructuring of agricultural extension.
8. Based on the interview with the coordinator of extension workers, 29 December 2016.
9. Based on the interview with an extension worker, 16 January 2017.