Rate of adoption of new farm practices in the central plains, Thailand

The following new practices were studied: use of synthetic fertilizer, contract tractor plowing, water pumps, insecticide, herbicide, crab killer, and rice double croppings. The data collected were of 2 kinds, economic cost and return for each farm sampled, and socioeconomic data on each of 7 new farm practices. In addition, village headmen were questioned on village data; tractor owners, on tractor use; 61 farmers who double cropped with rice in 1966-67, 10 who did so in 1968-69, and 17 farmers who grew vegetables for sale in the 1967-68 dry season were questioned. The major assumption is that each practice must be studied as an entity as well as in relation to other practices and to the farmer"s sociocultural and economic situation. To this end, variables affecting adoption were chosen. These included motivation; role and status among which are economic factors; communication; urban influences; debt and credit; infrastructure; local government change agents. Tabular, graphical, multiple regression, and factor analyses were used to analyze the data and clarify the adoption process and the above hypotheses. Results are presented in the following chapters on fertilizer, tractor, and water pump use, the use of other chemicals (insecticide, herbicide, and crab killer), and rice double cropping. A final chapter summarizes the data in a manner that is useful for policy conclusions.