The Adaptation of Cassava Farmers to the Outbreak of Cassava Mosaic Disease in Huai Khaen Community, Moo 2, Non Somboon Subdistrict Soeng Sang District, Nakhon Ratchasima Province

Abstract

 The cassava mosaic disease has continuously caused trouble to farmers in terms of damage to their yields and farmers' incomes. The purposes of this study were to study; 1) general information and production condition of cassava farmers in Non Somboon subdistrict, 2) cassava mosaic disease impacts on cassava production, 3) cassava farmers’ adaptation to the cassava mosaic disease. Mixed methods, including both qualitative and quantitative were analyzed, using questionnaire as the tool to gather the data from 103 cassava farmers in the area of Huai Khaen community, Moo 2, Non Somboon subdistrict, Soeng Sang district, Nakhon Ratchasima province. The result showed that; 1) most farmers (52.43%) were females with an average age of 51.00 years old, finished primary school.  A number of family members engaged in cassava production were four people per household,  the majority of farmers (63.11%) planted cassava variety Kasetsart 50, the average income was 50,340.15 Baht per household per production cycle, 2) the effect of cassava mosaic disease consisted of two aspects, they were economic effects in terms of crop damaged and product decline and social effects in terms of community conflicts and the change of occupation, 3) cassava farmers’ adaptation to cassava mosaic disease consisted of 3 aspects, they were production adaptation, i.e. changes in crop maintenance and changes in planting time; occupation adaptation, i.e. planting mixed crops and changing crops; and problem-solving adaptation, i.e. changes in cassava stem management and the source of the stem, and monitoring of cassava mosaic disease situation and forecasting the effects in advance. The multiple regression analysis revealed that farmer income would be explained by the adaptation variables 61.40%