Factors Related to Knowledge and Practices of Organic Vegetable Farmers in Using Medicinal Herbs to Control Insect Pest in Vientiane Capital, Lao PDR

Abstract

     The objective of this study was to study the factors related to knowledge and practices in using medicinal herbs of organic vegetable farmers in Vientiane Capital, Lao PDR. The samples used in this study were 134 organic vegetable farmers in Vientiane Capital, Lao PDR. The data was collected with interview forms and questionnaires with a confidence value of 0.75. The data was analyzed by descriptive statistics and enter method of multiple regression analysis.
     The results showed that most of the farmers were male with an average age of 46.7 years, with the education level of secondary school (M3). Their average organic vegetable farming experience was 6.25 years. There were 5.3 household members and the average household workers were 2.6 people. All of them spent their own funds to invest the organic vegetable farming, and most of them had no debt in 2020. The average income of selling organic vegetables in 2020 was THB 148,150.55 with the average cost of growing organic vegetables at THB 44,607.25. In 2020, they had not contacted with the agricultural extension officers, but they received news via the channels of farmer friends and the internet. The hypotheses testing showed that the farmer’s experience was statistically significant correlated at 0.01 level with the knowledge of organic vegetable farmers. While the education wasstatistically significant correlated at 0.05 level and the experience of growing organic vegetables was statistically significant correlated at 0.01 level with the practices of using the medicinal herb in organic vegetable growing.