Abstract:
In making a study on cost and revenue of commercialized jasmine cultivation in Thailand, the researcher had aggregated data from 40 farmers cultivating land from 5 rai upward within Nongkham and Phasicharoen Districts of Bangkok, Krathumban District of Samut Sakhon and Nakhonchaisri District of Nakhon Pathom Province, using purposive sampling method, from the month of October, 1984 to that of 1985. The data revealed a finding that farmers begin cultivating jasmine plants in rainy season and start harvesting in about 6 months times. The yield would keep increasing from the 2nd to the 3rd years of growing and start to decline from the 4th and 5th years onward. A grove in good maintenance may give reasonable high yields up to the 5th year. After that farmers cut down old plants to replant with young sprouts, or may rotate to other crops for a year before resuming jasmine cultivation, to assure replenishment of lost minerals and nutrients of the soil. Jusmine cultivation in cold, summer and rainy seasons would incur an average cost of about Baht 15,044.10, Baht 17,411.13 and Baht 25,116.19 per rai respectively. The cost in the rainy season is higher than that of the cold and summer seasons by approximately Baht 10,072.09 and Baht 7,705.06 per rai respectively. These differences are due to variation in costs of seeds and of materials for plantation. In all seasons, the highest cost that farmers have to bear is that of insecticide; averaging for the cold, summer and rainy seasons in percentages of 65.57, 67.29, 67.77 respectively out of total farmers spending. Farmers obtained income from jasmine cultivation in the cold, summer and rainy seasons in average of Baht 24,782.50, Baht 31,816.00 and Baht 35,750.00 respectively, from which it could be noted that income per rai in the rainy season was higher than that of the cold and summer seasons at an average of Baht 10,967.50 and Baht 3,934.00 respectively. Differences in revenues among seasons are due to differences in selling prices and amount of yields. For example, averate prices for cold, summer and rainy seasons are Baht 57.50, 24.25 and 32.50 per litre, and the amounts of jusmines harvested per rai in the cold, summer, and rainy seasons are 431 itres, 1312 litres and 1100 litres respectively. From the analysis of the rate of return, a summary can be made that in cold, summer and rainy seasons the return on sales are that of 39.30%, 45.28% and 29.74% per rai. The return on investment on one rai basis are 20.99%, 31.05% and 22.92% respectively with recoupment period of 1 year and 4 months. The percentages of total cost of cultivation to total income are 62, 55 and 70 for the cultivation in the cold, summer and rainy seasons respectively. In economic terms, the rate of return on total costs are 64.74, 82.73 and 42.34 respectively. A note can be made from our above study of all forms of earnings that the highest yields are from the hot season. Comparing yields of the cold season to those of the rainy season, in terms of rate of return on investment it was found that the rainy season yields greater revenues than those of the cold season; but in analyzing rates of return on sales, on production cost and the percentage of total cost of cultivation to total revenues, farmers received higher return in cold season than in rainy season. The most frequent problems encountered by farmers are those of insect eliminating, as many kinds of insects and pests attack the jasmine plantation. The high cost of insecticides, on top of farmers inadequate knowledge to cope with such jasmine pests make the cultivation costs soaring. Therefore, related government agencies should propagate knowledge on good care and maintenance of jusmine culture to farmers, especially that of applying insecticides to achieve better efficiency and safety on users. Other problems faced by farmers are : - Employment problem. The inconsistent volumes of jusmine yield have accounted for unemployment during the period of low yield. The researcher recommends that farmers become engaged in extra jobs such as fresh flower arrangement, making of artificial flowers, basket weaving, or cultivation of crops or flower plants such as chrysanthemum and marigold plants which will yield crops or flowers during the cold season, in which there is low production of jusmine. Jusmine cultivation gives a low yield in the cold season and the flowers are not beautiful. A recommendation in this case is that related agencies conduct their research on experimental plots to find ways to rectify the problem and also to search for such strains of jusmine that will give the best result. Owing to the high yield of jusmine cultivation in summer, the prices usually come down to a very low level. It is advisable that the government encourage the use of jusmine flowers for other purposes such as in extracting of perfume from the flowers or in mixing the flowers with tea leaves to increase fragrance. The prices of jusmine flowers are not regular and the practice is for farmers to sell their product to middle-men. To ensure that farmers will receive fair treatment in the sale of their product, farmers should set up a place of their own for sale of the jusmine flowers at Pak Klong Talad. The alternative is for the farmers to build up a collective body among jusmine farmers to build up bargaining power against middle-men. Jusmine flowers have been exported but they are in a minimal quantity. The government ought to promote publicity on the usefulness of jusmine flowers in regard to their beauty and fragrance, and their use for decorating purposes. Such publicity may attract foreigners interest in jusmine flowers which they could use for decorative work on different occasions in their countries.