Agricultural Extension Roles of Village Agricultural Volunteers in Lamphun Province

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate: 1) socio-economic attributes of village agricultural volunteers in Lamphun province; 2) knowledge and knowledge sources about roles of the village agricultural volunteers; 3) factors having relationship with roles of the village agricultural volunteers; and 4) problems encountered and suggestions about agricultural extension tasks of the village agricultural volunteers. A set of questionnaires was used for data collection administered with 238 out of 582 village agricultural volunteers in Lamphun province, gained by Yamane’s formula. Obtained data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and multiple regression. Results of the study revealed that most of the respondents were male, 55 years old on average, single, upper secondary school graduates and they were farmers. The respondents had 3 household members and 11.81 rai of agricultural land holding each. They had 213,002.49 baht of annual household incomes and their annual household expenses were 106,198.32 baht on average. About one-half of the respondents (49.60%) had no household debts but the rest had (82,002.10 baht per year on average). Less than one-half of the respondents (42.40%) had no social position but most of them were savings group/village fund members. Less than one-half of the respondents (40.30%) had a high level of knowledge about agricultural extension roles of the village agricultural volunteers but had a moderate level of information perception. They perceived information through agricultural extension workers most. There were 4 factors having positive relationships with agricultural extension roles of the village agricultural volunteers: sex, age, social position (sig=0.05), meanwhile, educational attainment had a statistically significant relationship at 0.01. For problem encountered, it included monitoring agricultural situation in the village as well as knowledge transfer and agricultural problem-solving. Suggestions of the respondents were continual on knowledge of new technology and provision of welfare to the village agricultural volunteers for morale building.