Farmers’ Perception of Improved Rice Varieties for Climate Change Adaptation in Batang Regency, Indonesia

Farmers’ perceptions of improved rice varieties represent a critical initial step in their adoption as climate change adaptation strategies. This study examined farmers’ perceptions by integrating on-farm adaptive research, which compared the agronomic performance of rice varieties, with participatory approaches to capture farmers’ evaluation of improved varieties. A total of 81 farmers from climate-affected areas of Batang Regency were purposively selected as respondents. Data was collected through structured interviews and questionnaires administered during the evaluation of field demonstrations. Farmers’ perception levels were assessed using a Guttman scale and classified into three categories: high, medium, and low. Logistic regression analysis was subsequently employed to examine the relationship between farmers’ socio-demographic characteristics and their acceptance of improved rice varieties. The results indicate that, overall, farmers exhibited a low perception of improved rice varieties. Among the evaluated opinions, Inpari 32 HDB received the highest perception scores across all agronomic attributes. The regression results show that farm size and age significantly influence variety acceptance. The odds ratio for farm size (0.117) suggests that each additional hectare of cultivated land area reduces the likelihood of adopting improved rice varieties by approximately 88.3%, holding other factors constant. In contrast, the odds ratio for age (1.080) indicates that each additional year of age increases the probability of adoption by about 8%.