Abstract:
This thesis has as its aims to study the cost and guaranteed price of cotton production in Thailand. The study of the cost of production was done in 3 sizes of plantation, namely, a plot of 1-8 rai, 9-16 rai and over 16 rai. The data in the thesis were obtained from interviewing farmers who cultivate cotton seeds in Lamtakong Land settlement, Nakornratchasima, for the crop year 1981/82 The results of the study revealed that the cost of production for the plantation of 9-16 rai was the lowest while its yield obtained per rai was the highest. This result may be due to the appropriate size where the highest efficiency in overseeing the plantation could be obtained. The cost of plantaion of over 16 rai was lower than that of the plantation of 1-8 rai while its yield was also greater. The reason may be due to the insufficient knowledge of the farmers of 1-8 rai in taking care of their plantation as well as their inefficient use of insecticides. Taking guaranteed price into consideration, it was found that the plantation of 9-16 rai obtained the highest rate of return on investment, while that of over 16 rai came second and that of 1-8 rai the lowest. Problems encountered by farmers in cotton cultivation as revealed by the study are as follow: 1. The high cost of insecticides which affects the cost of plantation since quite q quantity of insecticides has to be used. 2. Inadequate knowledge of the farmers on the use of insecticides which leads to unnecessarily high cost of cultivation. 3. The guaranteed price fixed by the Marketing Organization for farmers is still lower than the cost of cultivation of small-sized plantations. 4. Insufficient number of officials of the Marketing Organization for farmers with adequate knowledge on the quality of different grades of cotton. Remedies to the above-mentioned problems can be done in the following manners: -Government agencies concerned should propagate proper technical knowledge to farmers in the use of insecticides, soil preparation etc. More research should be done to improve the techniques of cotton cultivation. Officials from the marketing organization for farmers should all receive proper training to enable them to classify the grades of cotton correctly, while the guaranteed price should take into consideration the cost of plantation of small-scale farmers. Loans with low interest rate should be more available to farmers. With such kind of assistance and encouragement, farmers might become more interested in cotton cultivation which should help earning more foreign currency for the country through the exporting of the product.