Factors affecting the adoption of rice combine harvester of famers in Sawang Daen Din District, Sakon Nakhon Province

Abstract

The adoption of agricultural machinery to replace human labor results in an increase in both production efficiency and farmers' incomes and a reduction in production costs. Although most rice farmers in Thailand use combine harvesters, there are, however, still some farmers in Sakon Nakhon Province who still have not adopted them. This study aims to analyze the factors influencing farmers’ adoption of combine harvesters in Sawang Daen Din District, Sakon Nakhon Province, using data from interviews with 146 sample farmers. The model estimation results indicated that independent variables were able to explain 46.32% of the decisions to adopt a combine harvester. Education level, farm size, health attitude, economic attitude and physical attitudes had a significant effect on combine harvester adoption. Therefore, the key recommendations are the following: 1) The promotion of combine harvesters should be emphasize on low education farmers because the accessibility and ability to accept technology is lower than other farmers; 2) The development of combine harvesters should focus primarily on rice quality factors; and 3) the relevant government agencies should promote the demonstration field for comparing combine harvesters and hand harvesting, as this may enhance the adoption of combine harvesters in the study area.