The objective of this study was to analyze knowledge level related to GAP standard of farmers who produced GAP vegetables with correct percentage in knowledge of farmers who answered correctly, attitude of practices according to GAP standard with likert scale, and satisfaction of marketing channels for outputs through weighted mean score, to construct and assess indicators leading to influence on the output distribution by means of factor analysis, and to analyze the relationship between component factors and each marketing channel of GAP vegetables with analysis of multinomial logit model. The samples of this study were randomized by means of stratified random sampling from districts, sub-districts, communities to GAP farmer households according to database of the Office of Agricultural Research and Development Region 1 (OARD 1). Data were collected in the form of interviews with questionnaires from farmers who produced 5 GAP vegetable groups. 166 households were divided into 58 households produced basil and sweet basil group, bell-pepper group, and purple eggplant group, 41 households produced other GAP vegetable group (long and small eggplants, bitter gourd, parsley, cowpea, cabbage, and cauliflower), and 67 households produced chilli group.
knowledge level was analyzed as correct percentage in knowledge of farmers who answered correctly and attitude of practices according to GAP standard was analyzed with likert scale
Findings showed that farmers who produced GAP vegetables had knowledge at a high level by means of calculating correct percentage in knowledge of farmers who answered correctly, especially in land for growing vegetables is free from hazardous materials and microbes that will be residual in the outputs. In addition, the attitude related to GAP vegetable production of farmers was consistent at a very suitable level according to likert scales in 5 practices which were hygienic practice management in the fields, agricultural tool management, input management, practice and control, and recording and controlling documents. GAP vegetables were distributed to the certain markets, although middlemen bought GAP vegetables to distribute in destination markets (Bangkok and Chiang Mai) regardless of whether theoutputs were GAP vegetables. However, the safety of GAP vegetables indicated that the outputs were without chemical residue and could be traced for production back to the field, leading to the trade advantage. Moreover, farmers had a satisfaction of each marketing channel at a high level by means of weighted mean score. It was found that each farmer group had a satisfaction level of output distribution, corresponding with characteristic of farmer groups.
For construction and assessment of factors, institution, economic, and farmer characteristic factors led to influence on the output distribution in each marketing channel by means of factor analysis. It was found that the important component factors in institution factor consisted of GAP vegetable production finance, knowledge service in marketing, and knowledge service in production. Besides, the important component factors of economic factor were non-agricultural and other agricultural incomes and that of farmer characteristic factor were labor provision, earning ability of households, and ability in GAP vegetable production.
Finally, the relationship between the component factor as mentioned above and the output distribution in each marketing channel was analyzed by multinomial logit model. It could be concluded that the component factors related to knowledge service in production and other agricultural incomes influenced the output distribution in RP and company markets, supermarkets and local food safety markets, and local markets. The change of these component factors had much effect on the distribution in each marketing channel at positive and negative direction. Therefore, the multinomial logit model evaluated could result in determination of optimal marketing strategies in each marketing channel to increase high profit on farmers and relevant stakeholders.