An analysis of factors affecting agricultural land use patterns and livelihood strategies of farm households in Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand

Abstract

Development of specific agricultural land use patterns and livelihood strategies is affected by farm households' characteristics as well as exogenous factors. This study, based on a survey of 210 households in Kanchanaburi Province of Thailand, applied a stepwise multiple regression technique to analyze the factors influencing agricultural land use patterns and livelihoods. The result of the analysis revealed a number of influencing factors of economic, demographic, and physical characteristics. Multiple regression analysis showed that there were three and six significant factors explaining the crop acreage change in upland and lowland households, respectively, explaining 59–71% and 81–94% of variability of agricultural land use pattern. This indicates the adoption of different and changing agricultural land use strategies as influenced by exogenous factors.