Household Consumption of Agricultural Products in Phrao District, Chiang Mai Province.

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to analyse the proportion of consumption to production of agricultural products within the farmers’ household and to identify their consumption pattern in Phrao District, Chiang Mai Province. The 236 respondents were the farmers in Phrao District or 10 percent of the total and were selected by the multistage sampling method. The data were collected by interviewing the respondents according to a recommended questionnaire. The findings showed that the respondents were 44.8 years of age, most of them completed primary school, generally had 2 off-springs with the household size of 3-4 persons. An average residential area was 0.76 rai, while an average farm size was 8.36 rai. An average income was 12,492.00 Baht per year.

Agricultural production was based on rainy season glutinous rice. Other crops planted were non-glutinous rice, soybean, peanut, black bean, sugarcane, tobacco, field corn, mango, longan (lamyai), string bean, ginger, lettuce and pepper.

The proportion of agricutural product consumption to production among farm household of glutinous rice, non-glutionous rice, soybean, peanut, field corn, mango, longan (lamyai), string bean, ginger and lettuce were  0.61±0.08, 0.13 ± 0.05, 0.004 ± 0.01, 0.001 ± 0.005, 0.07 ± 0.15, 0.01 ± 0.01, 0.006 ± 0.01, 0.01 ± 0.01 0.03 ± 0.01 and 0.074 ± 9 0.07 respectively.

As regards consumption behaviour, 97 percent of the respondents consumed glutionous rice daily and 54.3 percent consumed 3 meals a day. Fish, pork and beef were reported as the main sources of protein. Pork was consumed daily.