Social-Ecological Characteristics Influence the Pesticide Application Behaviors of Jujube Farmers in Kalasin Province

Abstract

This research’s objectives were aimed to investigate jujube farmers’ social-ecological factors of age, educational level, availability of household labor, farming experience, and land used size for production that influence the pesticide application behavior. The informants were 130jujube farmers, who had been registered jujube agriculturists with Pon Municipal District, Kammuang District, Kalasin Province They were selected by a simple random sampling method of Taro Yamane. To gather data, the informants were interviewed with a questionnaire taken place from July to October 2018. Then, the data were statistically analyzed with the help of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences: SPSS) to compute frequencies, distributions, and percentage, maximum and minimum values including the behavior score. According to the finding, the difference of the informants’ social-ecological characteristics had significantly affected the way of pesticide application in various aspects. For example, the informants, who have graduated higher than the Elementary Grade 6, have a better score in checking the condition and readiness of their chemical sprayed instruments before using in comparison with others who were educational accomplishment lower than that. Therefore, the research’s benefits are the empirical information available to design on how to train farmers applying agricultural chemicals appropriately based on knowledge. Consequently, not only jujube farmers’ healthy physiques will be secured
but also the sustainability of jujube production and Thai environments.