Farmers’ attitude toward farming in accordance with the philosophy of sufficiency economy in U-mong municipality, Meuang district, Lamphun province

Abstract

     This study aimed to investigate: 1) socio-economic attributes of farmers; 2) knowledge and attitudes towards farming in accordance with the philosophy of sufficiency economy of the farmers; 3) factors effecting attitudes towards farming in accordance with the philosophy of sufficiency economy of the farmers; and 4) suggestions related to the creation of attitudes towards farming in accordance with the philosophy of sufficiency economy. The sample group in this study consisted of 272 farmers living in U-Mong municipality, Lamphun province and they were obtained by two-stage sampling. A set of questionnaires was sued for data collection and analyzed by using descriptive statistics i.e. frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation. Also, inferential statistics (stepwise multiple regression analysis) was employed in this study.
     Results of study indicated that most of the respondents were male, 61 years old on average, married, and elementary school graduation or below. They had 4 family members and 2 household workforces on average. The respondents had a farming area for 3.56 rai and earned an income form farming for 86,234.30 baht per year on average. They had farming experience for 28 years on average and were member of 3 agricultural groups on average. The respondents contracted agricultural personal twice a year and joined agricultural training/trips for twice a year on average. Moreover, they joined agricultural tradition or activities for 3 times a year on average. They perceived new/ information about farming in accordance with the philosophy of sufficiency economy 27 times per month on average. It was found that the respondents has a high level of knowledge and attitudes about farming in accordance with the philosophy of sufficiency economy. They was a statistically significant relationship between attitudes towards farming in accordance with the philosophy of sufficiency economy and the following factors: agricultural personal contact (sig.<0.05), agricultural training/trip and knowledge about farming in accordance with the philosophy of sufficiency economy (sig.<0.01)
     According to results of the study, the following were suggestion for creating attitudes towards farming in accordance with the philosophy of sufficiency economy: 1) promotion and extension of the philosophy of sufficiency economy in farming; 2) adoption of the philosophy of sufficiency economy to cope with climate change and economic crisis; 3) creating activities promoting farmer participation in the adoption of the philosophy of sufficiency economy and; 4) instilling consciousness of livelihoods in accordance with the philosophy of sufficiency economy to children of farmers.