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โครงการหนังสืออิเล็กทรอนิกส์ด้านการเกษตร เฉลิมพระเกียรติพระบาทสมเด็จพระเจ้าอยู่หัว

การศึกษาพฤติกรรมการใชเมล็ดพันธุขาวและการประมาณการความตองการเมล็ดพันธุขาวสําหรับศูนยขาวชุมชน

collected. These data would help in estimating demand for rice seed by variety for each
community rice center.

It was found that average years of farming of farmers was 27 years. Average rice planted
areas of wet and dry seasons were 30.619 and 28.048 rai, respectively. 75.2 per cent of farmers

planted rice twice a year. More than 90 percent of both season plantation were broadcasting.

Average yield of wet and dry season were 757.63 and 796.0 kilograms per rai , respectively in
which approximately 29 percent was owned seed and only 17 percent was seed bought from

community rice center . It was also found that only 51.5 percent of farmers used to buy rice
seed from their community rice centers. The main reasons for not buying were that community

rice centers produced less both varieties and quantity of rice seed. This was because every
community rice center faced the same problem of too small capacity of rice seed sorting

machine which is less than 5 metric tons per day. Especially in the harvesting season , the
capacity is very much less than demands. These machines were supported by the government.

The above limitation has made community rice center in choosing to produce the only
varieties of rice seed that most of farmers in the area used. By using the data of varieties of

rice seed used and planted areas that farmers registered with the office of agricultural extension

office at sub district level in the past , it was found that the most favorite 5 varieties of rice
seed used in these areas were RD49 , RD41 , Phitsanulok2 , Khao Dawk Mali 105 and RD29 for

wet season and RD49, RD41, Phitsanulok2, RD49 and RD57 for dry season. Combine with the
data of planted area of rice in the related sub district , rice seed used per area , percent of

owned rice seed used , the quantity of rice seed by variety of rice that each community rice
center would produce in the next crop year could be estimated.