Assessment of community-based agricultural extension services in land reform areas in Thailand | |
| Author | Chontida Wongkhumchan |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.RD-14-03 |
| Subject(s) | Land reform--Thailand Agricultural extension work--Thailand |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Science in Regional and Rural Development Planning |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Thesis ; no. RD-14-03 |
| Abstract | The research focused on the community-based agricultural extension service in land reform area in Thailand. The main objective of the research was to assess the implementation of agricultural extension services delivery by the community-based agricultural extension center (CAEC) in land reform area of Thailand. The specific objectives were to examine technical expertise and qualifications of local extensionists and find out their motivation factors; to assess the delivery methods of agricultural extension services applied by local extensionists and satisfaction of farmers; to study a communication system and farmer's network in CAEC; to assess agricultural knowledge gained and utilized by farmers; and to provide recommendations to strengthen community agricultural extension services in the land reform area. This study was conducted with two groups of very small farmers and small farmers based on their land holding size in the Kam Mad sub-district, Kut Chum district in Yasoth on province, Thailand. A standardized questionnaire was employed to collect data as a prime tool with sixty seven sampled respondents. Other primary data collection methods used were field observation, key informants interviews, and focus group discussion. The research was focused on both a quantitative and qualitative analysis. The findings showed that CAEC was effective in providing agricultural extension service to farmers in land reform area in general. The CAEC was successful in providing agricultural extension services on organic rice farming to increase agricultural knowledge and enhance their utilization. The qualified local extensionists, effective delivery methods and farmer's network were the key success in its operation. The findings showed that local extensionists disseminated agricultural knowledge and technologies on organic rice farming to farmers effectively applying their indigenous knowledge. The CAEC emphasized on farmer's participation in practical learning-by-doing in field through demonstration plots and field visit. Farmer's network was used in the CAEC to disseminate agricultural information and knowledge after the training and demonstration. The network kept farmers to be involved in farming activities and also linked them together in CAEC inside network and also with other outside networks. There were multiple communication channels were used within the network including face-to-face dialogue, network meeting and mobile phone. Based on the findings, there were high degrees of agricultural knowledge gained of both very small farmers and small farmers in several technical aspects. But it was slightly different in the utilization in such a way that very small farmers utilized a few technical aspects of organic rice farming practices more than those from small farmers. Constraints in the utilization of both groups were a long period to get a return, inadequate input resource, labor intensive, high initiate investment and limited land holding size. Although several good prospects from the implementation of CAEC, there was still a room for improvements to enhance it in future. A set of recommendations were given to strengthen agricultural extension services provided by CAEC. These were enhance technical knowledge and skills of local extensionists, increasing utilization of organic rice farming practices, supporting training aids and learning materials, organizing additional training session and identifying new training areas, promoting new generation of local extensionists and replicating CAEC approach in other land reform areas |
| Year | 2014 |
| Corresponding Series Added Entry | Asian Institute of Technology. Thesis ; no. RD-14-03 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development |
| Department | Department of Development and Sustainability (DDS) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Rural Development, Gender and Resources (RD) |
| Chairperson(s) | Soparth Pongquan |
| Examination Committee(s) | Thapa, Gopal B.;Ahmad, Mokbul Morshed |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MOAC), Thailand |
| Degree | Thesis (M. Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2014 |