Correlates of perceptions and attitudes of farmers toward Community Leadership Training Program in Chiangmai, Thailand
Date
1985
Authors
Jirapron Peng-Ont
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Abstract
The overall objective of this study was to determine the perceptions and attitudes of farmers toward the COLT Program and to identify some socio-demographic, socio-economic, psycho-social and experience variables which may be associated with their perceptions and attitudes.
The study was confined to the four target villages of the second phase of the COLT Program in Chiangmai. A total of 384 respondents were studied.
Majority of the respondents were males (76.82%) and married (78.12%) with a mean age of 37.47 years and had finished only up to the primary grade school.
The mean family income of all respondents was 16,689.06 bahts (B1.4 : P1). The average farm size of respondents, on the other hand, was 7.33 rais (1.17 hectares). They had engaged in farming for an average of 19 years, and majority were either owner-farmers or share tenants.
Of the total respondents, 41.67 per cent have been involved in the program as actual participants. Most of them claimed to have had satisfactory and very satisfactory experience although they were mostly governed by self-oriented motives.
As to perception, 45.57 per cent of the respondents were fully aware of the program, 31.77 per cent were slightly aware and 22.66 per cent declared unawareness. However, 96.8 per cent of the respondents were in agreement with the COLT program. The rest were neutral or had disagreed with the different aspects of the program.
As a whole, farmers trained under the COLT Program had higher perception and attitude levels than those untrained under the said program.
The socio-demographic characteristics found to be related with perception of selected aspects of the COLT Program were educational attainment and marital status. Family level, size of farms, and farm tenure status were the socio-economic variables related to it. Psycho-social characteristics were also found to be related with perception. Information-seeking activities, actual involvement, nature of involvement and nature of experience were the experience variables related to the same. However, none of the socio-demographic, socio-economic, psycho-social characteristics nor experience variables considered in the study were related with attitude toward the COLT Program. Regardless of their characteristics, the respondents had a high attitude level towards the program.
The data seem to show that none of the included variables were related to attitude, however, if one looks at the total samples, the results would indicate that the perceptions and attitudes of farmers toward the nature, philosophy, objectives, and activities of the COLT Program were strongly related. farmers with high perceptions also had high attitude levels.