Opinion of smallholder farmers on the conversion of layer hens to organic farming in Chiang Mai province

Abstract

The objective of this research was to determine the factors related to the opinions of smallholder farmers on converting to organic laying hens in Chiang Mai. The subjects were 148 laying hen smallholder farmers.  The data of the research was collected using interview schedules and was analyzed using descriptive statistics including percentage, mean, and standard deviation. Hypotheses were tested using Stepwise multiple regression analysis. The result showed that 1) The most smallholder farmers were male (52.70%) with an average age of 53.43 years. They had experience in keeping laying hens of an average of 2.82 years. Farmers had an average income of 2,099.26 baht/month and had an average cost of keeping layer hens farming of 2,401.64 baht/month. They had an average debt of 116,058.78 baht and perceived information on organic layer chicken farming on an average of 3.38 times/month. 2) The opinion score of converting to organic laying hens of smallholder farmers from overall was at a high score; housing and outdoor rearing, animal health management, farm management, transportation, slaughter, waste management, animal feed, packaging, storage, the converting of the production system into an organic livestock production system were at a high score. Sources of animals and data recording were at moderate score. 3) The significant factors positively correlating with the opinions of smallholder farmers on converting to organic laying hens were gender, costs of laying hens farming (P < 0.05), and perceiving organic laying hen farming information (P < 0.01), these three factors can be combined to create a forecasting equation of 16.8%.  4) Officials should regularly ensure that farmers receive required knowledge because farmers may lack knowledge in organic laying hens.