Factors Influencing Farmers’ Decisions on Highland Paddy Rice Planting in Chiang Mai Province

Rice has been the national food in Thailand and the most important economic crop bringing numerous incomes to the country for a long time. Farming is the main occupation of most Thai people. The most popular and famous rice variety in Thailand is Khao Dok Mali 105. This research studies factors influencing the farmers’ decisions on paddy rice planting in Chiang Mai Province and its benefits. Furthermore, it is beneficial to strengthen Thailand's rice production along with educating farmers on the production process according to international standards aiming to stop using chemicals in the agricultural sector. From the population of 244,291 ethnic farmers in Chiang Mai, the sample was 400 ethnic farmers who plant highland paddy rice in Chiang Mai by calculating from Taro Yamane’s formula using the survey research. Most of them were married 40-to-49-year-old men who graduated from primary school. Descriptive statistical analysis included mean, percentage, and standard deviation. The findings revealed that the factors influencing farmers’ decisions on paddy rice planting at a high level were health, cost, labor, and price, and the factors influencing farmers’ decisions on paddy rice planting at a moderate level were production, market, environment, and policy. The farmers gave more importance to the health factor than the price, environment, production, market, and policy factors. Also, they gave more importance to the cost factor than the market and policy factors. Besides, they gave more importance to the price than the market factor. In addition, they showed more importance to the labor factor than the market factor. However, they gave less importance to the market factor than the environmental factor.