Evaluation process of rubber replanting aid in Eastern and Northwestern Thailand

Abstract

ABSTRACT          The objectives of this research were to analyze the confirmatory factors of process evaluation on rubber replanting aid of the Office of the Rubber Replanting Aid Fund (ORRAF) according to the perception of rubber farmers participating in the projects, which the investigation on the accord of process evaluation model of rubber replanting aid with the empirical data was included, and finally to test the invariance of process evaluation model of rubber replanting aid between two groups of rubber farmers participating in two projects including farmers who had never owned a rubber plantation and those participated in phase 2 of the project supporting rubber tree planting during 1997 – 2001. The samples were 1,107 rubber farmers obtained by means of stratified random sampling. The instrument used for data collection was the rubber replanting process evaluation form of the ORRAF evaluated by the rubber farmers in the projects. The data analysis was conducted using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Model Invariance Test by means of Multiple-group models analysis.           The research revealed that the process evaluation factors on rubber replanting aid of the ORRAF evaluated by the rubber farmers participating in the projects consisted of three factors, i.e., training, plantation management knowledge, and plantation tendance knowledge. The model of process evaluation on rubber planting aid fitted the empirical data at a good level. The model of process evaluation of rubber replanting aid between rubber farmers in the two projects – aiding farmers, which never owned a rubber plantation and supporting rubber tree planting in new areas in phase 2 during 1997 – 2001 had an invariance form, but had variance in the coefficient of the second-order factors.