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According to two figure before, showed that the area is very suitable for rice farming. In the figure below, Chedihak Subdistrict has 7,093 acres of
agricultural area which 13.1 or 929 acres is very appropriate for rice farming; 86.4 or 6,129 acres is moderate appropriate; and 0.5 or 64.042 acres is
inappropriate in rice farming.
Figure 4.7 Soil suitability of rice in Chedi Hak Subdistrict
Source: Rice Department of Thailand 2014
4.2 Personal Background and Socio Characteristic
Respondent in this study was progressive rice farmer. He is 56 years old. He work as full time farmer. He has experienced in rice cultivation more than
20years. His rice farm around 23 rais which is rented area. He has 5 household member which all of them was farm labor in the rice cultivation. IPM is one kind
of advanced technology which was adopted by the farmers. There are two source of media perception in terms of IPM technology that received by farmer including
personal media and interactive media. Personal media was provided by the government officer while interactive media was training program in IPM
technology. In terms of input used, farmer in the study area can produce the good
quality of seeds. There are two kinds of seeds which used by farmer including Chainat and Suphan cultivar. Those seeds will be sold around 20 THB per
kilogram seeds and needs 20 kilograms of seed per rai. Suphan variety is
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appropriate in Chedi Hak than another variety, this variety also tolerant with BPH. In terms of fertilizer, farmer used chemicals and organic fertilizer. There are three
kinds of chemical fertilizers that has been used by farmer including 46-0-0, 16-20- 0, and 0-0-60. For urea application, farmer will apply 5 kilograms per rai. Totally
in one rai they needs 50 kilograms of fertilizer. In addition, respondent did not used chemicals in pest control. He only
used biological control to manage their farm. Trichoderma is the best way to prevent pest in the rice cultivation. Kasetsart University and some private
company provide the Trichoderma but farmer still prefer to use Trichoderma from Kasetsart University because more effective that from private company. Farmer
use machinery in rice management in three steps including preparation tillage, plant stage fertilizer application, and harvesting which is the price is 550 THB,
650 THB, and 550 THB, respectively. Machine used can decrease labor used in rice management, in 23 rais of area he only needs 5 family labor in management,
and 2 until 3 hired labor for harvesting process, the wage of hired labor is 300 THB per person per day. In terms of land rent, he have to pay 1,000 THB per rai
area for 23 rai. For another input used, he only has to spent for petroleum around 200 THB per rai. According to those investigation, it can be seen that input used
factors not become factors affecting in adoption of IPM technology. Farmers has their own knowledge in managing input used factors in their farm detail cost and
return provided in appendix A. While he did not used pesticide to control his farm. He already adopt IPM technology in pest management. He cultivated two
periods in one year, there was no crop rotation. To prevent pest infest, farmers also planted some herbs in some side around the area.
The respondent was belonging in some group including cooperatives, BAAC, and Farmer’s group. As progressive farmer he also get the credit from
BAAC with the interest around 7. This loan will be used for rend the land. In terms of institutional support, there are some institutional that support the farmer
including Department of Agriculture Staff, Department of Agricultural Extension, and University staff. All of those institution was give advanced technology in rice
cultivation in order to enhance capability of farmers.
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4.3 Rate of Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice
