Cost and Returns in Rice Cultivation for Farmers in Lop Buri Province

Abstract

The research aimed to study the cost, cost structure and returns in rice cultivation in Lop Buri Province. The samples were 380 rice cultivating households. The researcher used Purposive Sampling to get the samples from 4 districts in focused area. They were Mueang Lop Buri district, Khok Samrong district, Ban Mi district and Tha Wung district. Each district provided 95 rice farming households. The tool used to collect data was Structured Interview. The collected data was divided into two parts. The researcher applied statistics included frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation for quantitative information. The content analysis was also utilized to analyze qualitative information respectively. Following the rate of returns, the researcher evaluated cost structure by using Common Size Analysis. The research finding found that the average cost of production was 5,720.66 baht in case that farmers rented the land, while the average cost of production was 4,689.29 baht in case that farmers owned the land themselves. The highest cost came from materials. The average material cost was 2,203.46 baht (38.52%) followed by the average overhead cost which was 2,065.53 baht (36.10%), and lastly the average labor cost was 1,451.67 baht (25.38%). Furthermore, the finding revealed that the farmers gained average paddy 0.83 cart per rai. The farmers could sell them at the average price of 8,182.28 baht per cart (or equally calculated to 6,770.96 baht per rai). The farmers made the average net profit of 1,050.30 baht per rai. Hence, the average net profit margin was 15.51% and the average benefit cost ratio was 18.36%.