Farmers’ adoption of sweet corn planting under Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) at Tha Phae District, Satun Province

Abstract

This study aims to study farmer’s characteristics of social and economic factors, knowledge and adoption of sweet corn production under Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) by farmers. The study was conducted at Tha Phae District, Satun Province by using schedule interview with 132 sweet corn farmers. The statistic used for data analysis were percentage, mean, standard deviation. Moreover, multiple regression analysis was employed to explore factor influenced to farmers’ adoption of sweet corn production under GAP. The results showed that most of the farmers were males with average age at 54 years old, most of them were Muslims. Most farmers finished primary school. Farmers had agricultural area 5.88 rais in average and the average area for sweet corn was 1.06 rais. Other agricultural activities found in the study consist of para rubber, palm oil and rice. Average income from all agricultural activities was 64,310.61 bahts/year. Farmers used to attend GAP training 2 times/person in average. A majority communication way was contact government officer directly. In addition, farmers had high level of basic knowledge in producing sweet corn under GAP. Regarding adoption of GAP, farmers accepted most of GAP standard except water source and data record standard, both were accepted in low level. From multiple regression analysis by Stepwise method, it was found that there were 2 factors which are age and level of basic knowledge in producing sweet corn under GAP had significantly influence to farmers’ adoption (P < 0.01). Finally, the study suggests that the training related with GAP should organize frequently in order to increase farmer’s knowledge especially data record standard and government officers should pay more attention to elderly farmers including their agricultural descendants.