ทัศนคติและความต้องการใข้ปุ๋ยอินทรีย์สำเร็จรูปของเกษตรกรผู้ปลูกพืขเศรษฐกิจในจังหวัดสุราษฎร์ธานี

Abstract

This research is aimed to study 1) the general social and economic features of the agriculturists planting the economic crops 2) the knowledge and understanding on the organic consumption as well as the attitudes and perceptions of the agriculturists' organic fertilizer consumption 3) the needs on the instant organic fertilizer consumption and the proper ways to apply the instant organic fertilizers including the agriculturists' needs on other types of services provided by the sellers 4) problems and threats affecting the organic fertilizer consumption of the agriculturists. The secondary and primary data are applied in the study. The primary data is compiled via 2 methods which are the group interview and the specific interview. The sampling groups are defined by the purposive sampling. The group interview is conducted by interviewing the group representatives of the agriculturists in the district. The mentioned group represents the planting areas where the maximum yields of the economic crops are generated i.e. rubber, oil palm, and rambutan. The sampling groups are classified in 3 groups for each district; consequently, total 9 groups are available. As for the specific interview, 55 experienced respondents in field of the organic agriculture and officers from the Ministry of Agriculture in the provincial level are interviewed through the semi-structured questionnaires. Furthermore, the descriptive analysis is narrated for the causes and effects of the incidents. The results reveal as following. The social and economic features of the agriculturists planting the economic crops in Suratthani province is rated in the good level. Most of the planted crops certainly generate the high yields and high price which facilitate the agriculturists' liquidity. Consequently, most agriculturists remain their consumption value, their existing ways of life and get used to all conveniences. As a result, they lack of the awareness on the changes of the agricultural environment which becomes deteriorated and affects the agriculture in the future. The direction of the fertilizer development runs accordingly with the governmental policies. The plantations which depend on the nature are started. The chemical fertilizers are applied in the plantations to increase the yields, then. At present, the organic fertilizers and chemical fertilizers are simultaneously applied. The crops which the agriculturists turn to apply the organic fertilizers on are mostly rubber trees. Meanwhile, cil palm and rambutan are coming after respectively. The factor affecting the decision on the fertilizer selection is mainly the difference of the output value. Most of the agriculturists are well informed of the organic fertilizer advantages. However, they can basically understand the matter due to the unawareness. In addition, they still hold their ideas on the chemical fertilizer consumption. Thus, the implementation on the organic fertilizers becomes less. Most of the agriculturists who plant the economic crops are positive with the basic organic fertilizers in the aspects of the improvement on the soil structure, the increment of plant disease resistance, cost saving in the long run, and being environmental friendly. Nevertheless, the agriculturists view negatively in the aspects of the inconvenience of the management, high consumption quantity, and higher expense when comparing with the chemical fertilizer consumption. In addition, the plant disease carriers and sources of weed dissemination are negatively considered as well. However, the agriculturists view positively on the instant organic fertilizers in the aspects of advantages, convenient implementation and preservation. Meanwhile, the negative views are described as the lower efficiency than the chemical fertilizers. If the high yields are required, the higher consumption quantity of the instant organic fertilizer is needed. In addition, the confidence on the quality is not assured due to none of quality guarantee and specific quality control. The survey on the needs of the instant organic fertilizers is found that the agriculturists need the fertilizers for rubber trees, oil palms, and rambutan respectively. In view of the consideration on the instant organic fertilizer selection, the agriculturists focus on the quality as the first priority. The factors on price, reliability of the manufacturers and distributors, services, and sales promotion come after respectively. Problems and threats affecting the agriculturists' decision on applying the organic fertilizers are caused by various aspects as following. The agriculturists do not aware of the soil conservation, and they have negative attitudes on the organic fertilizers. The agriculturists are