1Graduate School of Biosphere Science, Hiroshima University, Japan
American Journal of Rural Development.
2015,
Vol. 3 No. 2, 15-23
DOI: 10.12691/ajrd-3-2-1
Copyright © 2015 Science and Education PublishingCite this paper: Pongthong Pongvinyoo, Masahiro Yamao, Kenji Hosono. Cost Efficiency of Thai National GAP (QGAP) and Mangosteen Farmers’ Understanding in Chanthaburi Province.
American Journal of Rural Development. 2015; 3(2):15-23. doi: 10.12691/ajrd-3-2-1.
Correspondence to: Pongthong Pongvinyoo, Graduate School of Biosphere Science, Hiroshima University, Japan. Email:
drkokung01@hotmail.comAbstract
GAP has been implemented in mangosteen commodity, which is the important export commodity in Thailand since 2003. The direct market for GAP –based mangosteen has not yet developed. Therefore, the farmers could not get a direct benefit from GAP adoption, and they believed that GAP could not give them any visible benefits. The present study seeks to expose the GAP realistic economic incentives from farmers’ GAP experiences in mangosteen commodity. One-hundred and twelve (112) respondents were randomly selected from 1,968 GAP mangosteen-certified farmers in Chanthaburi province which is the biggest mangosteen cultivation area in Thailand. This study reviewed that GAP certified farmers were satisfied with income from their investment more than the ordinary farmers (cost efficiency = 1.74 and 1.27, respectively). However, the production cost per rai was 11,554.7 THB/rai, higher than the ordinary farmers’ cost (7,007.9 THB/rai). The GAP standard itself provides direct incentive through its knowledge and appropriate farming techniques which are classified as non-economic incentives. The proportion of high-quality mangosteen can be increased if the farmers effectively practice GAP on their farms.
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