Attitude Towards Farming Career of Farmers’ Heirs in Upper Northern Region of Thailand

Abstract

The upper northern region of Thailand is one of the regions encountering the problem of farming decline due to the career unpopularity caused by a lack of motivation and insecure incomes. This situation reflects the scenario where most farmers’ heirs increasingly pursue other careers rather than the farming career. This research focuses on these issues: (1) levels of attitude towards the farming career, (2) comparison of average attitude towards the farming career, (3) analysis of influential factors on the farming career. There are 519 sampled farmers from the upper northern region of Thailand involving in this study. The research is based on multi-stage sampling and Abraham Maslow’s theory of hierarchical needs. With the discovered relevant attitude, a practical guideline to motivate farmers’ heirs to continue the farming career can be recommended. Descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA with F-test, and multiple regression analysis with Stepwise method were conducted for data analysis. The study found that farmers’ heirs have highly positive attitude towards the farming career with x̄=4.32. The maximum average attitude score is from the response to physiological needs and love and belonging needs with x̄ = 4.41. The next average attitude score is from the aspects of safety needs with x̄ = 4.39 and need of self-actualization with x̄ = 4.25, respectively. The minimum average attitude score is from esteem needs with x̄ = 4.11. The comparison of average attitude scores towards the farming career among three farmer groups (willing to inherit, unwilling to inherit, and unsure to inherit) classified by Donald Super’s theory of vocational development indicates that there is no difference in terms of response to physiological needs. While the other average attitude scores are statistically and significantly different at the level of 0.05. There are 4 influential factors concerning the attitude of farming career. Three of them are positive, which are 3 positive factors of age, perception of news information (p < 0.01) and marital status (p < 0.05). But only one factor of male gender is negative (p < 0.05). The conclusion is that farmers’ heirs have the attitude complying with the farming career which can respond to the physiological needs. A set of practical recommendations based on the discovered needs of Maslow’s to encourage youngsters to pursue the farming career is also provided in this study.