Decision to Organic Certificate of Vegetable Farmers in Maha Sarakham Province

Abstract

The purpose of this research was analyzed the factors that influenced the decision to organic certificate of Maha Sarakham vegetable farmers. The target population for the research was 320 farmers divided into 80 members who did the organic agriculture practice and 240 members who didn't applied the organic agriculture practice. The purposive sampling was used in this research. Data were collected by using interview schedule of vegetable farmers which 43 farmers were certified and 37 farmers were non-certified, total 80 organic farmers were used. Logistics Regression Model was applied to estimate the relation between the organic certificate decision and 5 independent variables (farmer’s characteristic, economic factor, farm physical characteristics, social and communication, and farmers’ attitude). The study result found that Prob   = 0.000 and Pseudo R² = 0.7487; this meaned independent variable in this model could describe the decision to organic certificated for 74.87%. The statistically significant influenced factors for the decision to certification were as follows; education, attitude of extension, plant diseases and pests issue. Therefore, supportive policies from associated official public organization were the key mechanism to increase the decision rate of organic certification. This support should focus on discussion for understanding with target farmers with fundamental education level because the trend of decision to certification was lower than high-education-level farmers. Moreover, providing knowledge and assistance to farmers in order to solve plant diseases and pests issue was necessary to enhancing the sustainability of organic production system.