The Adoption of Organic Rice Farming in Northeastern Thailand

The economic and environmental justification for certified organic farming could be considered strong enough to promote its adoption in the developing countries. Due to the problems facing conventional farmers, and reported benefits and opportunities derived from organic farming, questions may be asked about why organic agriculture is not adopted by a larger proportion of farmers. Contract and non-contract organic rice farms in northeastern Thailand versus their neighbouring conventional farms were used for this study. Descriptive statistics were used to investigate both organic and conventional farms and duration analysis was applied to investigate the factors affecting the adoption and diffusion of organic farming. The results reveal that important factors on decision of adoption of organic farming that were positively significant included water accessibility, farm-gate price and attitude to conventional production problems. This implies that the early organic adopter may have better access to water, the ability to seek and find higher prices, and have stronger attitudes toward conventional farming problems. This research may help to improve policy interventions by targeting policies on farmers who are most likely to remain in the sector.

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