Author : Danuphol Deelom

Summary : This study was undertaken to determine the factors influencing farmers' adoption of tomato seed production in Nam-oon irrigated area, Sakon Nakon Province, Thailand. To achieve this objective, the characteristics of farmers who joined the tomato seed production were studied. The characteristics were age, education, farm size, family size, annual income, tomato seed farms' income, training experience and contact with extension workers, and psychological and environmental factors that influenced the adoption. The 126 respondents were selected using the simple random sampling technique. Data were gathered through personal interviews by the researcher and five trained assistants. The general findings were discussed using frequency counts, percentages, means and standard deviations, while the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (r) was use to determine the relationships between the variables studied. The oldest among the tomato seed production farmers was 62 years, the youngest was 21, and the overall mean age 42. A little over 92 percent finished elementary school, and had an average farm size of 8.6 rai (1.28 hectare) and an average of five members per household. Annual gross income ranged from 9,000 Baht to 113,400 Baht or an average of 38,720 Baht (US$1 = 25 Baht). The average income in tomato seed production for each respondent per crop season was 15,291.75 Baht. The majority of farmers had attended an average of three training programs from 1990 to 1992. All had contact with an extension worker at an average of three times a month. Respondents perceived the performance of the extension worker as good. Most of the respondents had a high perception of recommended tomato seed production technologies. They were satisfied with irrigation facilities and their marketing. In terms of level of adoption of tomato seed production technology, a little more than 50 percent had highly adopted the recommended practices. Five independent variables had highly significant correlation to adoption.