Analysis of Factors Affecting the Dependency on Bamboo Resource and Bamboo Plantation of Households at the Royal Project Areas

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to (1) acquire knowledge related to socio-economic condition of households in the Royal Project areas, (2) examine the dependency on bamboo, bamboo utilization and opinion of the households on bamboo plantation, and (3) analyze factors affecting the dependency on bamboo of the households. The study employed primary data from field survey using questionnaire to collect data from the sample households in the Royal Project areas. The 2003/04 and 2004/05 crop-year data were collected from 236 and 226 samples in Chiang Mai zone and Chiang Rai, Mae Hong Son, Phayao and Lamphun zone, respectively. The total sample size was 462 households. The study on socio-economic condition of the households showed that average family size was 5 people. The main tribes were Karen, Hmong, Lahu and Mussur. Average land holding area was 17.08 Rai (6.25 Rai = 1 ha), mainly being their own land and free occupied land. About 59.29 percent of the households got the land from the Royal Project Foundation. Most of them were farmers and their main occupation was agriculture. Average annual income and expenditure were 111,681.86 and 78,362.53 Bath per household, respectively. Average debt was 33,319.33 bath per household. It was found that almost half of them earned adequate income for household expense, but they did not have any saving. Most of them informed that a fall in output price was a serious problem. They requested government's assistance concerning the development of public facilities in the community. The evaluation on forest resource dependency showed that about 73.59 percent of the households harvested forest products for utilization. About 34.41 percent bought forest products for households utilization with average value of about 725 Baht per household per year. Considering bamboo resource dependency of the households, there were 58.66 and 37.88 percent collecting bamboo shoots and bamboo culms, respectively. The bamboo culms were mostly used for construction and repair houses and hut. They were also used for cultivation and handicraft. There were 50 percent of the households that cultivated bamboo in their own land around housing and cultivation areas. Bamboo stocks mainly came from their neighbors. The results showed that only 36.36 percent were aware of experiment project on sweet bamboo plantation at the Royal Project sites. Only 10.17 percent got the bamboo planting stocks for their cultivation. It also found that 55.63 percent did not have knowledge related to bamboo. The analysis of socio-economic factors affecting the dependency on bamboo resource of households in Royal Project areas showed that, in Chiang Mai zone, main occupation, tribes, income, time using for travel to collect bamboo and barrier in collecting bamboo were factors significantly affected the dependency. The analysis for Chiang Rai, Mae Hong Son, Phayao and Lamphun zones found that tribes, income, debt, time using for travel to collect bamboo, barrier in collecting bamboo and bamboo plantation in household were factors significantly affected the dependency.

Keywords: bamboo resource, highland, socio-economic, Royal Project Foundation