Author : Surasit Sae-ung

Summary : The study aimed to: 1) find out the small farmers' aspirations for themselves, their family/household members, community, and country; 2) identify small farmers' perceptions of and attitudes toward the objectives/goals, philosophy and principles, policy guidelines, expectations, strategies, and accomplishments/consequences/impacts of Small Farmers Development Project (SFDP); 3) identify the strong and weak points of SFDP; and 4) determine the relationship between small farmers' selected socio-demographic characteristics and their aspirantions, perceptions, and attitudes toward certain specific aspects of the SFDP. One hundred thirty-two farmer participants randomly chosen from farm villages of Khon Kaen province were interviewed to gather primary data; other documents were the source of secondary data. Simple arithmetic and statistics were used to analyze the data. Farmer respondents were predominantly male with an average age of 42 years, mostly married, and had only elementary educational attainment. They had 3-4 children and an average of 5-6 household members, including one or more relatives (extended family). They had been farming for 24-53 years. They had been in contact with their project personnel "very often" except for a few who never had contact with project personnel because they were not full-time farmers. The farmers believed that SFDP contributed greatly to the attainment of their aspirations in general and in particular. They appreciated and understood the project objectives although a few said there were too many. They gave a "very adequate" rating to the attainment of the objectives. They perceived the philosophy and principle of SFDP to be "very helpful" in its implementation and they felt that the policy guidelines were "very appropriate." Their expectations were very similar to that of SFDP and they rated SFDP strategies as "very satisfactory." The SFDP personnel performance and qualities/traits were rated statisfactory, while the achievement/activities of SFDP.