Farmers’ Perception and Adaptation in Organic Vegetable Production for Sustainable Livelihood in Chiang Mai Province

The study aims to explore farmers’ practice and constraints in organic vegetable farming as well as to identify farmers’ perception and their adaptability to move to or improve their organic vegetable farming. It also helps to select and determine factors influencing farmers’ perception and adaptation to uptake organic vegetable farming and to investigate if this in turn supports sustainable development of farmers’ livelihood in the study zone. A total of 108 organic farmers of Chiang Mai Organic Agriculture Cooperative were randomly selected from three districts based on current farming practices experience, in transforming to organic vegetable farming in 2013. Information was collected using semi-structured questionnaires and focus group discussion from January to April 2013. Adaptation of organic farming and farm practice's were analyzed using the three point rating scale method. In order to fulfill the objectives mentioned above, descriptive was used. The findings revealed that a number of farmers in three study areas had previous experience in organic vegetable production, organic vegetable farming practice, i.e., land preparation, vegetable seed, types of crop, planting method, soil nutrient management, pest management, weed management and harvesting. The disadvantages or constraints in small-farmer adoption of organic agriculture include: debt and income, bio-physical and knowledge constraints. The multiple regression analysis results indicated that age, education level, household labor, farm income and extension visit significantly contributed to farmers’ perception on organic vegetable production. Moreover, education level, experience, natural water and farmers’ networks or membership significantly contributed to farmers’ adaptation on organic vegetable production.