The Factors influencing farmers' decision to join Paksong Coffee Production Cooperative, Paksong District, Champasak Province, Lao PDR

Abstract

This paper aims to study the factors that influence the decision to join a coffee production cooperative, using the logit model to estimate. The comparison of economic factors is done using t-test statistics. The results indicated that factors affected the decision to join the cooperative are: the gender of the household head; ethnicity; occupation of the household head based on farming; experience in coffee cultivation; coffee cultivation area; access to credit; average return per hectare; and receiving training. In terms of economic factors, it was discovered that households that are members of cooperatives have a lower average cost of Robusta coffee production than households that do not join cooperatives, but the average cost per hectare for medium coffee is not different. However, in terms of quantity of production and income from coffee production, it was found that the quantity of coffee production in both groups is not statistically significant