Factors affecting farmers’ income generating in rice seed production towards seed standard, Thamai sub-district, Nakhon Sawan province, Thailand

บทคัดย่อ

The objectives of this investigation were to determine general information of farmers in the study areas, the analysis of factors affecting farmers’ income generating in major rice seed production towards seed standard,
and constraints in rice seed production improvement. The selected sample of 66 rice farmers in Thamai sub-district, Chumsaeng district, Nakhon Sawan province was estimated using the formula developed by Arkin (1974) through multistage sampling technique. Data collection was obtained by interview schedule. Multiple linear regression (MLR) was employed to determine factors affecting farm income generating in major crop year 2013/2014. The results revealed that factors affecting income generating in rice seed production were cost of seed used, cost of pesticide used, depreciation cost, household income, amount of credit, number of native knowledge application, and experiences in training, respectively. The constraints in rice seed production improvement were high cost of input, high cost of fertilizer, low rice price, and also climate variability, respectively. Recommendations for rice seed improvement at the policy level were 1) urgent support research and development in cost reduction technology; 2) enhance on farmers’ capability management in farm financial; 3) increasing the efficiency of rice marketing system; and 4) support farmer’s knowledge development on rice marketing. Furthermore, recommendations at the implementation level were 1) Farmers should always participate in rice intervention program; and 2) Promote farmers in outreach program by considering factors affecting income generating in rice seed production.