Understanding psychosocial determinants of sustainable farming behaviour among local rice farmers in Indonesia

Moving from risk perception to concrete farm action remains a central challenge in sustainable agriculture. Farmers may be aware of environmental and health risks, but such awareness does not automatically translate into sustainable practices without supportive beliefs and enabling conditions. To explain this gap, this study applies an extended Health Belief Model (HBM) to analyse sustainable rice farming practices in Indonesia, focusing on Rojolele Srinuk cultivation in Klaten Regency, Central Java. The framework includes perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, barriers, self-efficacy, and cues to action. It is extended with multidimensional risk perception health, environmental, and socio-ethical risks. Sustainability knowledge is added as a moderating variable to capture cognitive differences among farmers. Data from 420 farmers were collected through stratified random sampling and analysed using Partial Least Squares–Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results show that perceived susceptibility, perceived benefits, self-efficacy, and cues to action significantly encourage sustainable behaviour. Perceived barriers reduce it. Perceived severity has no significant effect, suggesting that long-term risks may be normalized in routine practice. Multidimensional risk perception strengthens self-efficacy and cues to action. Sustainability knowledge shows a limited but meaningful moderating role. These findings provide behavioural insight for designing context-sensitive sustainability policies in developing-country agriculture.