Farmers’ Opinions towards the Interdependency of their Community in Small Scale Irrigation System, Chiang Mai

Abstract

The main purpose of this research was to study the relationship between obstacles in agricultural occupation and the interdependence of people in the community. The sample group was 589 farmers living in an area under a small scale irrigation system in Chiang Mai. Data was collected via questionnaires and analyzed using statistics including frequency, percentage, minimum, maximum, mean, standard deviation, and Pearson’s product moment. The results showed that 79.12% of farmers were male, lived in the community for an average of 48.54 years, had an average income from agriculture of 3,060.32 Baht per month, and most (73.68%) had debt. Farmers’ overall opinion was at the level of agreeing that people in the community could be interdependent ( =2.72). They agreed that most of the people in their community were honest and trustworthy, willing to help when needed, and ready to help when there was an urgent matter. Farmers’ obstacles to farming were the fast–changing price of inputs, uncertain product price, and collapse of irrigation infrastructure. This study revealed that obstacles in occupation were significantly correlated with interdependency (r=0.113). This means that the higher the level of occupational obstacles, the more interdependency of the community.