Farmer's criteria for tree integration in farming system in Khon Kaen, northeast Thailand

Objective of research is to identify farmer criteria, including gender factor, in tree integration into the Northeast farming system. Community selected for study was Pak Nam village, Nong Kung Yai subdistrict, Kranuan district, Khon Kaen province. The results showed that size of land holding was an important farmer criterion for growing trees on farms. There was higher percentage of those with small land holding (17.9 percent of total small-land-holding household) who were not interested in growing more tree than those with larger land holding (8.3 percent). The most frequently-used reason for not wanting to plant more trees for the small-land-holding farmers (80 percent of small-land holding households do not want to grow tree) was the small size of cultivating land. Other reasons included negative effect of trees on yields of rice and field crops, difficulties in planting and maintenance due to cattle damage, lack of water, and poor soils. Number of farmers with more paddy land than upland who prefered planting trees in paddy agroecosystem was higher than those who prefered the upland agroecosystem (23 households vs. 8 houselholds). On the other hand, number of farmers with less paddy land than uplands who wanted to plant trees in paddy system is less than those who wanted to plant trees in upland system (20 vs. 22 households). In general, the farmers preferred to plant trees on paddy system more than upland system. The area around paddy field hut is the most preferred location for tree planting in paddy system followed by paddy bunds. The boundaries of the uplands are most preferred for planting tree in the planting trees in the upland system. Timber tree, the pradu, was the most preferred species for planting by large-and small-land-holding farmers. It was followed by multipurpose tree, eucalyptus. Fruit trees was less mentioned for planting than timber trees, however the most mentioned one was mango trees. The decision maker for planting more trees, or keep/cut the existing ones, was those who did the actual field work, usually the husband. In some cases both husband and wife made joint decision. Role of the wife as a sole decision maker was rare and only found in the case of widows in this study.