Assessing farmers' soil conservation adoption across erosion hazard zones in Juwet Sub-Watershed, Indonesia

Abstract

Soil erosion is a critical environmental problem threatening agricultural productivity and watershed sustainability in tropical developing countries. Despite growing interest in conservation adoption, empirical studies explicitly linking erosion hazard zonation with farmers' social conservation behavior at the micro sub-watershed scale remain scarce. This study examined soil conservation knowledge, attitudes, and practices among 110 farmers across five Erosion Hazard Level (EHL) zones in the Juwet Sub-Watershed, Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia, using an integrated biophysical–social approach grounded in the Knowledge–Attitude–Practice (KAP) framework complemented by the Theory of Planned Behavior. The EHL map was derived by crossing erosion potential data with soil depth measurements and served as the spatial framework for stratified sampling. The results revealed a consistent knowledge–practice gap across all EHL zones: farmers demonstrated relatively high erosion awareness and positive perceptions of conservation effectiveness, yet actual practice remained uniformly moderate regardless of hazard level. The very high EHL zone, covering 69.7% of the sub-watershed, had the weakest institutional support, with only 24.6% of farmers actively discussing conservation issues. Financial constraints and extreme weather were the primary barriers, while limited knowledge ranked least significant. These findings confirm that the principal bottleneck is structural and economic rather than cognitive, underscoring the need for zone-differentiated conservation interventions grounded in participatory watershed development principles.