College Students' Knowledge of Sustainable Agriculture and its Implications on the Agricultural Education Curriculum

The purpose of the study was to assess college students' level of agreement with statements defining sustainable agricultural practices and their knowledge level of twelve selected sustainable practices. A total of 500 students from the Departments of Agriculture and Geography were selected to participate in the study, out of which, 301 responded, for a 60.2 % response rate. The results of the study indicate that students were in general agreement with statements defining sustainable agriculture. However, many students indicated having little knowledge on the most common sustainable agricultural practices. Out of the twelve sustainable agricultural practices analyzed, students indicated that they had the least knowledge on integrated pest management (IPM) (M = 2.57) and the most knowledge on using animal manure as fertilizer (M = 3.46). Mean comparison of students' knowledge levels on each of the practices generated the highest mean for the Agricultural Education graduate students. Animal Science majors indicated having the least knowledge in eight out of the 12 practices. Results from this study indicate a clear need for additional efforts from agricultural educators to incorporate sustainable agriculture topics into their curricula.