Cost and Return of Economic Plants of Farmers in Hua Mueang Sub–district, Muang Pan District, Lampang Province

Abstract

This research intended to study the costs and returns of cash crops of farmers in Hua Mueang sub–district, Muang Pan district, Lampang province. The cash crops were rice (San Pah Tawng 1), Japanese soybean (75-A), sweet corn (Sugar Star Plus), and feed corn (S7328). The Taro-Yamane method was used to calculate the sample set. The population of this study was divided into 4 groups – 244 households growing rice, 104 households growing soybeans, 80 households growing sweet corn, and 77 households growing feed corn – 505 households in total. The data was collected using a questionnaire. Only households growing at least one rai of cash crops were included in the sample. The sample was selected using non-probability sampling with randomization due to accidental sampling.

The statistics used were descriptive statistics; percentage, frequency, mean, standard deviation and the inferential statistic used to test the hypothesis that equality of costs and returns was a paired sample t-test. The result of the study of cost and return on planting rice (San Pah Tawng 1) was the average costs 4,889.27 THB/rai, with net profit of 958.22 THB/rai, with a net profit margin of 16.77 percent. The result of the study of cost and return on planting Japanese soybeans (75-A) was the average costs 20,433.74 THB/rai, with net profit of 2,109.92 THB/rai, with a net profit margin of 9.36 percent. The result of the study of cost and return on planting sweet corn (Sugar Star Plus) was the average costs 3,948.10 THB/rai, with net profit of 5,665.05 THB/rai, with a net profit margin of 58.93 percent. The result of the study of cost and return on planting feed corn (S7328) was that the average costs 4,790.80 THB/rai, with net profit of 1,777.11 THB/rai, with a net profit margin of 27.06 percent. The result of the hypothesis test was each of the types of cash crops grown had higher returns than costs at the 0.05 significance level.