Social Impact of Farmers on Off – Season Longan Production in Banhong District, Lamphun Province

Abstract

     The purposes of this study were to: 1) study social impact of farmers on off-season longan production, 2) forecast influencing factors to social impacts among farmers and 3) develop of a policy recommendation on resolving the social impact of off-season longan production. 303 farmers who live in Ban Hong district, Lamphun province and 12 stakeholders were participated in this study. The data were collected through questionnaires, non - structured interview, and stakeholder participatory workshop. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and content analysis. The results indicated that social impact on off-season longan production was high (mean = 3.76). When analyzing the predictive power of the social impact from off-season longan production of farmers found two variables that can explain the variability of social impacts. This includes the number of agricultural workers in the household and the amount of land held for agriculture. Both of them could significantly predicted social impact of farmers from offseason longan production by 34.6% (p – value = 0.014 and 0.000, respectively). In this regard, the process of the workshop of the stakeholders suggested policy recommendations on the alteration of social impacts from off-season longan production by reducing production costs, migrant worker management, and water resource management.