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Agricultural Practices in a Rice-Rubber-Vegetable-based Farming System: Southern Thailand Experience
Dissertation Abstract:
The study explored certain socioeconomic, communication, and physical variables that influenced the agricultural production practices of rice-rubber-vegetable farmers in Southern Thailand. These variables were examined with reference to the use of the recommended agricultural technologies.
Needed information was gathered from the 151 farmer-respondents using an interview schedule.
The study revealed that on the average, the respondents were 47 years old, had been farming for 20 years, were elementary graduates, and had five househo ld members. Their mean annual family income was 16,538 baht (USjumi = 25 baht) and the majority of them were owner-operators. Their farms averaged 8.94 rais (1ha = 6.25 rais) for rice. 10.10 rais for rubber, and 0.99 rai for vegetables.
Ten rice farming practices were recommended for farmers' adoption. Of these, six practices were highly used by the fanners, namely: land preparation, fertilizer application, seedbed preparation, insect pest control. correct seed ling age (25-30 days old) for transplanting, and disease control. The four practices with low adoption were selection of improved rice varieties, treatment of rice seeds with fungicides, transplanting, and weed control.
Of the eight recommended rubber farming practices, four were highly used, namely: uniform height of opening for tapping, use of fertilizer, standard tapping system, and use of improved clones. The use of intercropping, use of cover crops, weed control, and disease control were recommended practices that were not used much. Nine vegetable farming practices were a lso recommended for adoption. However, only four of these were highly adopted, namely: compost application, improved variety of vegetables, fertiIizer application, and insect control after growing. The five practices that had a low rate of adoption, were transplanting, use of vegetable seeds treated with fung icide, insect control after sowing, disease control, and weed control.
Overall, the study showed that the fanners tended to exhibit a low level of adoption of the recommended agricultural practices in rice-rubber-vegetable farming.
The chi-square test results indicated that membership in organization and non-institutional agent contact had significant relationships with adoption of recommended agricultural practices in rice farming. Labor and transportation availabilities also significantly innuenced adoption of recommended practices in rubber farming. On the other hand, training/demonstration, and transportation availability were the variables that affected the adoption of recommended practices in vegetable farming.