A GUIDELINE FOR THAILAND’S SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

This research aims to explore causal factors affecting sustainable agriculture development in order to develop a guideline for Thailand’s sustainable agriculture development. The mixed methods research was applied to collect data from agriculturalists registered with the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives and provincial cooperatives. Selected by the multistage sampling method, 400 households from 77 provinces were chosen as survey respondents. Meanwhile, 5 informants were selected for in-depth interviews. The findings show that government policy, agriculturalists’ potential, and sustainable agriculture ideology highly affected sustainable agriculture development. Financial management and agricultural innovation management moderately affected sustainable agriculture development. The analysis of Pearson’s correlation coefficient between observed variables suggests that all pairs of the variables moved in the same direction, showing a positive relationship. At significance levels of 0.01 and 0.05, the most correlated pair contained “access to funding” and “financial adequacy” (r = 0.612). The least correlated pair comprised “participation of agriculturalists” and “agricultural technology transfer” (r = 0.104). According to the t-values in the regression model, agriculturalists’ potential, financial management, agricultural innovation management, and government policy directly influenced sustainable agriculture development (Chi-square = 31.80; df = 29; p-value = 0.328; GFI = 0.97; AGFI = 0.94; RMR = 0.028; RMSEA = 0.018; CFI = 1.00; CN = 461.15).