Abstract
•Perceptions of Saudi farmers towards agri-environmental legislation were explored.•Knowledge of legislation, non-compliance penalties and negative impacts was tested.•One-fifth of the respondents showed high awareness of agri-environmental legislation.•Knowledge of pesticide regulations and non-compliance penalties was the lowest.•Raising knowledge of environmental legislation is important for penalty avoidance.
It is essential for farmers to possess awareness regarding various aspects of the environment, but studies on the awareness of environmental protection legislation and its determinants among farmers are limited. Farmers’ level of awareness of agri-environmental legislation intended to protect the environment has been explored by testing the perceptions of Saudi farmers regarding various components of environmental protection legislation: knowledge of legislation, penalties for violations, and the adverse impact of non-compliance. The study was conducted in the Al Kharj governorate of the Riyadh region in central Saudi Arabia. After using systematic random sampling to select participants, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 312 farmers to collect data. Approximately 20 % of the respondents had high awareness of environmental legislation. Significant associations were found between knowledge of legislation and knowledge of penalties (χ2 = 54.7, P < 0.01), knowledge of legislation and knowledge of the adverse impact on the environment (χ2 = 107.6, P < 0.01), and knowledge of penalties and knowledge of the adverse impact on the environment (χ2 = 38.8, P < 0.01). “Knowledge of penalties” was the lowest-scoring component with respect to farming knowledge in all categories of legislation. Furthermore, farmers’ knowledge of pesticide legislation was the lowest among all fields. Higher levels of education among farmers improved their awareness of environmental protection legislation. From a policy-making perspective, it is essential to understand farmers’ level of awareness of existing agri-environmental legislation, as this can inform the design of extension messages to encourage compliance with legislation.