Farmers’ Opinion towards the Promotion of Collaborative Farming: A Case Study of Rambutan Collaborative Farm in Phoem Phun Sap Sub-district, Ban Na San District, Surat Thani Province

Abstract

     The objectives of this study were to determine 1) basic background of farmers who participated in rambutan collaborative farming, 2) rambutan production and marketing of farmers who participated in rambutan collaborative farms, 3) farmers’ opinions about the extension of rambutan collaborative farming and 4) recommendations for the development of collaborative farming of rambutan. Scripted interviews were used to collect data from a sample of 36 farmers who are members of Phoem Phun Sap community enterprise group by purposive sampling technique. Descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage mean and standard deviation were used to analyze the data. The study found that the average age of farmers was around 55 years old. The average land size of farmers who participated in rambutan collaborative farm was around 8 rai. Most of farmers have been educated in all aspects of production and marketing, including soil improvement, watering and maintenance, harvesting and trimming, certification, and selling price. It was found that the farmers had a high level of agreement on all 3 issues, namely the implementation of large-scale agricultural collaborative farming (mean 3.91), followed by methods, extension of collaborative agriculture (mean 3.89) and development of the large-field collaborative agricultural system (mean 3.78), respectively. Farmers most frequently-encountered problem from large-scale rambutan farming is pest infestation.