Author : Paiboon Maneekaew

Summary : The study aimed to evaluate the operations of the pilot project on the integration of extension and credit services for small farmers in Phrae and Nakhon Sawan provinces, northern region of Thailand. The owners of this project are the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) and Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE). It attempted to determine the factors which increase net family income of small farmers to more than 10,000 baht annually and the level of adoption of new technologies by small farmers in the rural areas. Data were gathered from primary and secondary sources. Complete enumeration of 112 respondents (72 participants, 20 non-participants, and 20 involved officers) and entities were involved. A descriptive technique was used to analyze project implementation while "before" vs. "after" in both provinces, the comparison between "participants" vs. "non-participants", and the comparison of three sizes of land holdings (small, medium, and large) method of analysis were used to evaluate the impacts on respondents in terms of changes in level of income and new technology adoption. Other statistical tools were also used to facilitate analysis. Itr also applied farm investment and financial management using the cause-and-effect framework of analysis of the operations of the project. Results indicated that the project led to increased net family income of small farmers from 8,129.79 baht or an increase of 59.97 percent while the aggregate was decreased from 23,569.67 baht - 20,440.81 baht or a decrease of 13.28 percent after the project. In Phrae, which was mainly composed of small farmers, net family income increased from 10,059.34 baht to 13,442.79 baht (33.63 percent). In contrast, Nakhon Sawan composed mainly of medium and large-scale farmers, net family income decreased from 32,681.28 baht to 25,160.07 baht (23.01 percent) after the project. On the other hand, net family income of participants after the project was higher than non-participants by 4.57 percent (20,440.61 baht.