IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2014) 5-1

Research article
erd

Education for Sustainable Development in Agriculture atPrimary Schools
VICHEKA LORN*
Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences, Royal University of Agriculture, Phnom Penh,
Cambodia
Email: vichekalorn@yahoo.com

MOM SENG
Royal University of Agriculture, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

BUNTHAN NGO
Royal University of Agriculture, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

LALITA SIRIWATTANANON
Association of Environmental and Rural Development, Pathum Thani, Thailand

MACHITO MIHARATokyo University of Agriculture, Institute of Environment Rehabilitation and Conservation,
Tokyo, Japan
Received 1 October 2013

Accepted 20 March 2014(*Corresponding Author)

Abstract Even a small plot or container garden applying sustainable agriculture can help
children learn basic ecological principles. In urban living, a garden maybe the best
connection for young people to nature; especially it may affect to their community,
making the connection between suitable agriculture and their parents or their future
activities. The study was conducted to access the perception of school children at primaryschool through the series of training provided towards sustainable agriculture andenvironmental education. Series of training were delivered to school children selectedfrom five primary schools: two from Prey Chhor district, Kampong Cham province andother three from Phnom Penh. Totally, there were about 200 children that participatedfrom the selected primarily schools in each training. Before and after the training provided,
as well as interviews at each step, the understanding of school children on sustainableagriculture and environment was evaluated; the results showed that the understanding ofcomposting materials were increased, also the perception and the motivation increased
with the training including practical demonstration. Noticeably, after the training on
compost making, school children had learned the ways of how the compost is made andwhat the chemicals meant to them and their communities. We also observed that a numberof school children started to collect the organic materials for their school's compost boxes.
Moreover, the results from their vegetable gardening gave evidence that the understandingof school children on agriculture and environment was increased and it was applicable totheir villages and the communities close to their places. Based on the findings obtainedand our observation, the series of training on sustainable agriculture and environment toschool children at primary schools are effective to the rural villages for their livings andincome generation. This may be also helpful to the community effort in sustainableagriculture and environment as a whole.
Keywords food safety, trained and non-trained pupils, knowledge transferring

INTRODUCTION
The effort towards the environment and sustainable agriculture has to involve all people in thecommunity, experts and policy maker. Childrens knowledge on the subject plays an important role
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by influencing the daily life and farm practices of their parents as well as their future activities.
Even though, farmers still using chemical fertilizers and pesticides in farmlands to increase
agricultural productivity. The application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in developed
countries and developing countries have been causing serious environmental problems for sometime (Mihara and Fujimoto, 2007). Educators focused on schooling for sustainability, a vegetablegarden is the best starting place. Children can care for other living things, learn ecologicalprinciples, experience the joy of nature, make connections between science and social studies anduse all their senses, thus pupils will know the balance between living and surviving through ahands-on relationship with another living organism. Students gain a better understanding of how
gardening and farming practices affect the environment, and how they can improve both soils andthe quality of their food (Biological Farmers of Australia, 2009). It is a way to understand an
educational process on a daily basis (Center for Ecoliteracy, 2004-2011). To conclude, the topic of
this study is to investigate the children’s acceptance of knowledge on sustainable agriculture andenvironment.
METHODOLOGIESThe study was conducted at 6 primary schools and was divided into two groups, the first (ReseySai,Prey Veng and Prey Sar) was accepted the training about sustainable agriculture and environment
since 2006 until 2011, and the second (Prek Speu, Toul Rokakos and Tro Pangsela) was notaccepted. These schools are located at the edge of Phnom Penh city, Prey Sar and Prey Vengcommune, Dang kor district, Cambodia. These areas are capital cities of Cambodia and it has alargely free land to conduct agriculture. So people here can be called farmers. There were 363
pupils from six primary schools interviewed using structured questionnaires. Among them, 164
joined the training courses whereas the rest did not. Key questions were applied with the students
are: the pupils acceptance of the knowledge of agriculture and environment; how this important
knowledge for the pupils thinking, and how the pupils can be in the core play role of extension?
During the study, some experimental materials were also provided by the trained schools, wereseeds, compost boxes, and organic gardens.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Rehabilitation and sustentation of the agriculture and environment, using the sustainability ofnatural resources, and reflecting very clearly on a good environment, explaining to farmers andpupils to understand the importance of agriculture is a measure in the conservation work. Practiceof the organic agriculture was increased through creating a series of compost centers, modelorganic farming and training courses. Based on the study, the range of pupil’s age is from 11-15
years old. The pupils are the future guardians of the world. Sharing the knowledge will provide theyounger generation with the skills and they need to face the challenges of producing delicious andhealthy food. There are many workshops at the trained school, namely: water quality control,
agricultural land improving, planting technology, compost making and bio-extract making.
Depending on the training of materials for making compost (Fig. 1), the trained group can makecompost by themselves; they can practice at their house which opposite from the non-trained group.
Knowledge on suitable agriculture and environment shown in table 1, notified that the trained
pupils have a high acceptance of agro-forestry, mixed cropping, rotation crop, benefit from usingorganic fertilizer and bio-extract (97%), whereas the non-trained pupils accepted the 26%. In
addition to this, the trained pupils can get a lot of experiences about crop technology related soil
quality by enjoying organic farming with their hand-plantings.
Beside the materials for making compost, each step for making fertilizer is also important(Table 2). Digging a pit or building a compost box, putting plant residues in the pit or compost box
as a layer, putting farmyard manure in the pit or compost box alternative with plant residues layers,
pouring water until the materials become moist, covering the pile with plastic or thatch to protectfrom rainfall, and mixing the materials in the pit every week are the necessary knowledge for howⒸ ISERD

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compost can be made. The trained students gave the best answers, whereas the non-trained studentseven though chose the right answers it was limited.
120
100

100

83.4

100

10010010085.4
Knowledge oftrained students
(%)

80
53.6

60
4049.2
37.7

33.3

24.6

Knowledge of
non-trained
students (%)

21.6

200

6.5

7.9

00

Can

Pesticide

0Food
waste

Foodplant

Wind

Water Compost Plasticbox

Paper

Fig. 1 Materials for making compost
Table 1 General education on suitable agriculture and environment
Description
Understanding of trained
students (%)
Understanding of nontrained students (%)

Agroforestry
YesNoYesNoMixed crop

Rotation crop

95.7
4.318.1
81.9

98.8
1.2
16.1
83.9

Benefit from using organic
fertilizer and bio-extract
100
26.1
73.9

Understanding oftrained students (%)
100
100
100

Understanding of nontrained students (%)
100
94
86.4

100
100
93.3

30.2
100
44.7
48.2

95.1
4.9
100

Table 2 Each step for making compost
Each step for making compost
Dig a pit or build a compost box
Put plant residues in the pit or compost box as a layer
Put farmyard manure in the pit or compost boxalternative withplant residues layers
Put stone in the pit or compost box
Pour water until the materials become moist
Pour water until the materials become soaking wet
Cover the pile with plastic or thatch to protect from rainfall
Mix the materials in the pit or compost box every week

In addition to this, the trained group added that farmers should reduce the use of chemicalfertilizer (100%) and use organic fertilizer instead of (100%) because when they apply organic
fertilizer to the crop, there is no concern to their health. And non-trained group responded that
reducing of chemical fertilizer will cause crops not growing well (81.9%). Moreover, 54% of thenon-trained group answered that the application of chemical fertilizer will improve soil fertility
while 93% of trained group mentioned that soil fertility will be degraded. Regarding to varieties ofinsect (for diversity of insect pest), the non-trained group showed that it is increase (65.3%), andthe trained group also showed that it is decrease (93.3%). However both groups stated that it is notdifficult to reduce the application of chemical fertilizer. This result can express that the trainedgroup is easy to understand about disadvantage of chemical fertilizer while more higher
understanding than the non-trained group. Acknowledgement of chemical disadvantage should be
the best education for all people; it can lead farmers to lessen the amount of chemical fertilizer, andit can encourage customers to think about food safety. Relating to the effect of environmental
pollution on public health, the trained group understands the effect whereas non-trained group only
54% of them understands. To reduce the amount of organic waste, recycling the waste into othermaterials is a main solution like recycling organic wastes into organic fertilizers. Farmers can apply
organic fertilizers or compost fertilizers to the field to build a good soil quality and can bring theⒸ ISERD178

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food safety as well as the fresh environment. The farmers can have more benefits when they apply
organic fertilizers because there is no need of much money like with chemical fertilizers, and all
farmers can also learn how to produce high quality of organic fertilizer by themselves easily.
Therefore, basing on safety feeling of using organic fertilizers, 100% from the trained students
have a very strong confident on safe fertilizer because many theories were provide, it is an essential
idea to promote their thinking at the present and in the future. Only 38.2% from the non-trained
students have safety feeling. This understanding of organic fertilizer of non-trained students wasgot from outsides, including their families, friends and neighbors. The best information brings themto understand a lot about conservation of suitable agriculture and environment. The rest of nonsafety feeling 61.8%, since they did not get a lot of information about a good practice ofsustainable agriculture and environment so they always think if they apply organic fertilizer, thecrop’s yield will be decreased and will be also destroyed strongly from insect pest very quickly.
Particularly, increasing the amount of trees around the house, school and community are very
interested from trained students (100%) and non-trained students (55.8%). The reason is because;they can derive many benefits from the tree such as flood, building a house or making equipment,
providing the shade and fresh air, especially the residue of the trees like leaves, bark or branch canbe made into organic fertilizers as well. 44.2% the rest from non-trained students, they do not want
to increase the trees. The reason when there are a lot of amounts of trees,it can cause thesurrounding area dirty almost everywhere that can damage to environment and it can cause theserious accident. Futhermore, beside studying in the class, both trained and non-trained students
also got the agricultural and environmental knowledge from outside (Fig. 2), were as followed:
parents, teachers, classmates, friends at the schools, neighbors, NGOs, and the government. Even if
the students can get the knowledge from outside, it is very limited. It means only sometime thestudents were involved; it is not like taking a class regularly.
Friend at school

11.00

The government

11.10

23.60
18.90

15.10

NGO

22.60
30.70

Classmate

39.00
46.20
40.20
43.20
43.30
42.20
42.70

Teacher
Neighbour
Parents
0.00

Non-trained
students (%)

10.00

20.00

30.00

40.00

TrainedStudents (%)

50.00

Fig. 2 Students knowledge on agriculture and environment getting from outside schools
Importantly, publishing books of agriculture and environment are also a main way to involve
people especially students to learn the news and concerned issues in over the world. According to(Fig. 3) some students always do many researches by reading books in the school’s library but
some rarely and some never to read. Even though, the amounts of the trained students on bookreading still bigger than the non-trained students.
After finishing the training, many trained students can conduct their own practices throughlearning and only a small amount could not because they are rare to join the training caused by
supporting their parents for farm work. So they could not follow the lessons like the others (Fig. 4).
Encouraging people to understand the sustainable agriculture and environment throughtraining series such as how to create appropriated practices, showing all difficulties related to any
failure of applying the pollution on agriculture and environment and expressing clearly the benefit
on sustainable agriculture, were focused as the most benefits for life skill from the trained students
reason (Fig. 5).
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3.50%
13.60%
34.80%

Always

AlwaysRarelyRarely42.70%
82.90%

Never
22.60%

Never

Trained students

Non-Trained students

Fig. 3 Amount of students for reading books on agriculture and environment

120
100
8060
40
200100

97

100

100

81.1
Can (%)
18.9
3Growing plant

00Making compost

Making biopesticide

Cannot (%)

0Conservation
water
environment

Conservation
surrounding
environment

Fig. 4 Visibility of the trained students’ practice after training

The benefit of suitable agriculture andenvironment

16.60

Any failure of applying the pollution onagriculture and environment

19.10

A good practise of sustainableagriculture and environment

17.60

What is sustainable agriculture andenvironment

83.40
80.90

Not understand(%)
Understand (%)

82.40
2.00
98.00

0.00

50.00

100.00150.00Fig. 5 Understanding of the trained students through training series
10085

80.9

80.9
Want to practice

5015

19.1

19.1

Do not want to practice0Parent (%)

Neighbour (%)

Others (%)

Fig. 6 Transferring of appropriated agriculture and environment to involvementsMany advantages derived from the training series not only provide the student knowledge, butalso provide benefits indirectly to the student’s parents or neighbors (Fig. 6). However, there is still
limit of transferring because some involvements understood it takes time and it could not
absolutely make a competition with foreign products.
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Indeed, relying on the questionnaires of the trained students, there are many problems wereoccurred around people living area, they are water pollution, infertile productivity, air pollution,
lacking of food safety and suitable agriculture. There are differences between before and after thetraining. After testing before training, it was explain there is only a little understanding onsustainable agriculture and environment for the trained students, and the understanding subjects in
the interest of testing the children, namely: making compost (18.9%), sustaining water environment(18.3%), and sustaining surrounding environment (26.8%). Therefore, after training the students
are really most understand and they can almost absolutely practice all the knowledge by themselves,especially they are a part of human resource and responsible for transferring this knowledge to theinvolvements.
Finally, the purpose of both groups, they would like to have a vegetable garden for theirschools because they can improve planting crops, making compost fertilizer, making bio-extract,
and they can have fun with their garden and learn new skills. The vegetable garden plays animportant role to integrate the garden into the curriculum, including garden-based social studies. It
encourages classroom teachers to participate with their students in the garden, especially to invite
the local community to join together for growing plants year-round and can promote more andmore the knowledge of sustainable agriculture and environment to the local community.
CONCLUSION
The trained pupils understood well about conservation of agriculture and environment, but nontrained pupils had a limit. All the pupils are very happy to join the program because they can learn
and practice using of natural resource to get sustainability, and reflecting clearly of a goodcondition for environment. This study is very essential for pupils because it is a way to teach themto have a closely relationship with appropriated agriculture and environment in their future. Bothgroups would like to have organic vegetable garden for their school because they can enjoy with
their garden and learn new skills. It is concluded that, there is still limited knowledge of the pupils
on environmental and sustainable agriculture. They should be trained on the subject through formal
educations, providing ready materials, practices and study tours.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This study was supported by Institute of Environment Rehabilitation and Conservation (ERECON),as well, we would like to great thanks to all which cooperated very closely with this research.
REFERENCES
Center for Ecoliteracy. 2004-2011. The school in every garden. (Retrieved from http://www.ecoliteracy.
org/essays/school-every-garden., Accessed: 19 July, 2011).
Mihara, M. and Fujimoto, A.(eds.) 2007. Sustainable Agriculture with Organic Fertilizer, Institute ofEnvironment Rehabilitation and Conservation, Tokyo, Japan.
Biological Farmers of Australia. 2009. Organic School Garden. (Retrieved from http://www.organicschools.
com.au/About/tabid/157/Default.aspx., Accessed: 19 July, 2011).

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