FARMERS PLAN TO RESOLVE THE DEBT ACCORDING TO THE SUFFICIENCY OF FARMERS RAI LAK THONG PHANATNIKHOM IN CHONBURI

Abstract

          The objective of this article was to study the causes of farmer’s debt and guidelines farmers to solve debt problem following the Sufficiency Economy of farmers at Rai Lak Thong sub-district, Phanatnikhom district, Chonburi province. This was a mix methods study. Data collecting was achieved from questionnaires, focus group discussion, observation and in-depth interview Sample group This is the 11 villages of Rai Lak Thong farmers for 92.44 percent of the farmers who have registered with Phanat Nikhom District Agriculture Office in 2016.The results showed 1) The reason for a loan farmers was agricultural investment, purchasing of pesticide and herbicide. When considering agricultural cost, chemical fertilizers, and wages were a high cost investment. When regarding loan sources, they loaned money from the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives which was 67.72 percent and the rest was from the informal loan and from relatives within the family. The average debt ratio was between 50,001 - 100,000 baht. 2) The guidelines for solution of debt problem according to the Sufficiency Economy showed the building an extra income following the concept of the second stage of the Sufficiency Economy. Farmers set up a group of grey oyster mushroom farming and food processing in order to generate an extra income for the farmers to produce community products as a reason of creating self-reliance and the policy guideline of government agencies that wanted to solve the debt problem by developing the learning center in order to allow farmers to acquire various forms of agricultural skills from experts and the community scholars in order to apply the cost-saving agriculture and the guideline for modern agriculture.