Economic and technical assessment of organic vegetable farming in Chiang Mai, Thailand
2009
Kawasaki, J. | Fujimoto, A.
Government of Thailand is promoting alternative vegetable production systems such as organic, chemical pesticide free, and safe use production systems. Most of vegetable producers are not confident to transform their conventional system to organic farming, presumably due to technical difficulties and low production efficiency. Based on a questionnaire survey of 142 farmers under different production systems in Chiang Mai province in 2008, this paper aims to clarify the common vegetable practices, cost and return of major crops, and profitability of organic farming in comparison with other production system. Over 15 kinds of vegetable were grown under different farming systems in Mae Rim district, Chiang Mai province. Kinds of vegetable grown depended on market demand and growing time. In this district alone, vegetable production accounted to 19.6 million Baht in 2007, of which 2.6 million Baht was from organic vegetables. There were no differences in types of input used by major organic crops such as kale, pakchoy and yard long bean. Economic analysis revealed characteristics of four types of farming system; organic, chemical pesticide free, safe use, and conventional farming system. The organic farming system was economically most feasible by high prices of produce; however, it would need further improvement in order to increase their yields and production efficiency. Both safe use and pesticide free farming systems were economically feasible. The conventional farming system was economically feasible, but faced the highest risk in the increased price of synthetic chemical inputs.
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