Factors affecting farmers’ participation in the large-scale Striped snake-head fish farm project in Kamphaeng Phet and Ang Thong Provinces

Abstract

Striped snake-head fish is an important freshwater fish due to its high economic value which can help generate high income and career stability. The development programs to support and increase production efficiency for the striped-snake head fish become essential for the farmers. This study aims to: (1) examine the large-scale striped snake-head fish farm project by using a descriptive statistic and (2) identify factors affecting the participation of the farmers from 74 participating farmers and 175 unparticipating farmers employing logit model. The results showed that the aforementioned model was best fit to describe the ability of independent variables that affect the inclination and possibility of participating in the project. Positive factors affecting their participation were farming experience, fish farm size, investment ability and basic knowledge about striped snake-head fish. On the contrary, the negative factors were rice planted area and rice farming experience. For high and sustainable participation rate, supporting agencies should facilitate the farmer who had area and experience of culturing, with access to finance and encouraging the collaboration of farmers.