Factors affecting economic losses from banana wilt disease at the farmer households’ level in three southern border provinces

Abstract

Banana wilt disease has been found in Thailand's three southern border provinces since 2014, causing the fruit flesh to turn red, brown, or black, reducing farmers' ability to sell the production. Therefore, this study aimed to 1) compare the costs and returns of farmers encountering and not encountering banana wilt disease, 2) farmers' opinions on economic losses of farmer’s households from pest infestation, 3) analyze factors affecting the economic losses of farmers encountering banana wilt disease in the three southern border provinces. The population was 10,632 farmer households growing bananas. 197 farmer households were selected by quota sampling. The tool was a structured questionnaire. Data was collected by interviewing individual farmers. Frequency, percentage, average, S.D., t-test, and multiple linear regression were used for data analysis. The results are revealed as follows. 1) Farmers not encountering banana wilt disease had significant costs of foliar trimming and banana blossom cutting both before (2013) and after banana wilt disease occurred (2019), higher than farmers encountering the disease problem with a statistical significance. After banana wilt disease occurred, farmers encountering banana wilt disease had an average return per one banana tree lower than farmers encountering no disease problems at 115.6 baht, with a statistically significant difference at 0.001 level. 2) In Yala Province, farmers' opinions on economic losses from pest infestation were at an economic injury level (47.4 %), the cost of prevention or eradication is greater than or equal to the return on banana sales. Meanwhile, Pattani and Narathiwat Provinces encountered a general equilibrium level. 3) Factors affecting the economic loss at the farmer households level found that the number of banana plants damaged by wilt disease and the epidemic period of banana wilt disease to another plot had a positive relationship to household’s economic losses.