Factors Affecting Farmer’s Adoption of Palm Oil Management following Oil Palm Plantation Extension Workshop in La-ngu District, Satun Province

Abstract

Palm oil is one of economical plants. The government is trying to extend the area of oil palm
plantation for making farmers secure in their income, especially in Southern Thailand where the area is
suitable for oil palm. This study aims 1) to study individual factors of trained farmers in palm oil management
workshop in La-Ngu district, Satun province, 2) to study the level of palm oil management knowledge and
adoption of palm oil management and, 3) to explore farmer’s individual factors affected adoption of palm
oil management following the workshop. Sample of the study were 140 farmers and interview schedule
was used for data collecting. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistic and factors affected farmer’s
adoption of palm oil management were tested by Chi-Square technique. The study found that most of the

farmers were male (54.0%), all of them were Muslim, educational level at primary school (68.6%). Most of
the farmer had average income less than 100,000 baht/year (70.1%) and almost of them had experience
in oil plantation less than 5 years (97.2%). Farmers evaluated themselves with medium level in knowledge
of oil palm management following the workshop which they attended and mean of oil palm management
adoption was 67.76%. Statistical analysis indicated that factors affected farmer’s adoption of palm oil
management significantly (p<0.05) consist of age, education level, main occupation, average income,
type of land right, and experience in oil palm plantation. Therefore, this study recommended that in
the future workshop officer should pay more attention on elderly farmers and less education farmers
regarding their understanding and resulting in more oil palm management adoption.