| Abstract | Land use suitability for agricultural crops is highly important because proper land selection
and use can lead to higher crop productivity goals and sustainability benefiting the farmer
and the country as a whole. However, Land use suitability is not the sole reason; the price
fluctuations of agricultural product and other socio-economic factors can lead farmers to
decide on crop selection, rotation and diversifications. This research study evaluated the
suitability of diversification of low-yielding rice fields to oil palm plantations in Karaked
sub district of Pak Phanang basin, Chian Yai District, Nakhon Sri Thumarat province,
Thailand.
The precision agriculture techniques were used to develop multi-criteria suitability
evaluation models, and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to compare the economic and
land-use suitability for rice and oil palm, and the research was conducted through data
collection, experimentation and analysis leading to apply models and to interpret the
results in spatial and temporal basis, and to make appropriate recommendations and
guidelines.
The selected diagnostic weighing factors included annual rainfall, nitrogen (N),
phosphorus (P), potassium (K), soil reaction (pH), soil texture, soil depth and slope. The
oil palm suitability study showed 57.2% of area was highly suitable. When both of
suitability evaluations compiled into a final single map to show a model for area selection
of those two crops showed that 22.1% of the area was highly suitable for both the crops
and 35.1% of area was highly suitable for oil palm and moderately suitable for rice. Out of
the area evaluated, 42.8% was urban, consisted of roads, forests and water resources.
The economic evaluation of the system was done in terms of time series forecasting,
capital budgeting by payback period, net present value (NPV), and internal rate of return
(IRR) for comparing the decisions. The time series result showed price fluctuation of major
rice of 9.70 THB/kg in August 2018 and lowest 7.05 THB/kg in January 2009, and the
same for second rice of 18.21 THB/kg March 2018 and lowest of 5.48 THB/kg per in
September 2009. And for oil palm the price fluctuated between 5.12 THB/kg in December
2018 and lowest of 3.05 THB/kg in May 2009. The result of capital budgeting showed a
payback period of rice at about 5 years and oil palm at about 9 years. The NPV of rice and
oil palm are 199,564 and 204,720 THB respectively. The IRR of rice and oil palm are 27
and 16 % respectively. In conclusion, the Karaked sub district can plant both rice and oil
palm with proper management. Although there are several benefits in both crops, rice
offers more overall benefits. |