Practice Following Good Agricultural Practice of Onion Grower in Chiang Mai Province

Abstract

     This study was conducted to investigate 1) socio-economic attributes of farmers growing onions in Chiang Mai province, 2) a level of knowledge and compliance with a good and appropriate agricultural standard system of the farmers, 3) factors effecting the compliance with a good and appropriate agricultural standard system of the farmers, and 4) problems encountered and suggestions of the farmers. The sample group consisted of 245 farmers growing onions under a good and appropriate agricultural standard system in Chiang Mai province. A set of questionnaires was used for data collection and analyzed by using descriptive statistics and multiple regression.

Results of the study revealed that the respondents were 58 years old on average. Most of them were elementary school graduates and below. They had an average annual household income for 242,751.02 Baht; 157,624.49 Baht was from growing onions. The respondents held 6 rai of land and had 4 household members on average.  The respondents had an average household debt of 80,808.45 Baht. They perceived information about good agricultural practice through various media and onion cooperatives once a year on average. The respondents contacted onion cooperative personnel and onion farmer group twice a year on average. They attended training on good agricultural practice once a year and had 7 years of experience in onion growing under good agricultural practice on average. The respondents had a moderate level of knowledge about good agricultural practice. Based on its detail, they had a high level of compliance with good and appropriate agricultural standards (mean=3.89) with a statistical significance level at 0.05.  It included the following 3 aspects: total household income, farming land, and knowledge about good agricultural practice.  The following problems encountered 1) low price yields 2) diseases and pests, and 3) the seeds were not of good quality. For suggestions, it was as follows: product price insurance, production and marketing tracking, and more suggestions about good agricultural practice.