Effect of Community-Based Education on Livestock Farmers' Knowledge of Applied Herbal Plants for Animal Health in Palembon Village, Bojonegoro, Indonesia

Limited farmer knowledge regarding the safe and appropriate use of applied herbal plants may reduce the effectiveness of supportive animal-health practices and may lead to inappropriate treatment decisions in smallholder livestock systems. This research aimed to evaluate the effect of a community-based educational intervention on livestock farmers' knowledge of applied herbal plants for supporting animal health in Palembon Village, Kanor District, Bojonegoro Regency, Indonesia. A pre-experimental one-group pre-test and post-test design was applied involving 30 respondents and a structured 10-item questionnaire. Based on the actual pre-test and post-test recapitulation, the overall proportion of correct/'Yes' responses increased from 33.33% before education to 83.67% after education, representing an increase of 50.33 percentage points. Analysis using a reconstructed respondent-level binary dataset showed significant improvement in each knowledge indicator (p < 0.01), and the total knowledge score increased from 3.33 to 8.37, with a mean difference of 5.03 points (paired t-test, t = 6.646; p < 0.001). These findings indicate that structured community education can significantly improve farmers' knowledge of applied herbal plants as a supportive component of livestock-health management and sustainable animal production.