Knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) rice cultivation among farmers in community enterprise groups for large-scale agriculture in Suphan Buri province, Thailand

Abstract

Results revealed that farmers possessed a very high level of knowledge regarding AWD rice cultivation, with correct response rates ranging from 76.7% to 100% across 15 assessment items. They exhibited consistently positive attitudes towards AWD implementation, with mean scores between 4.23 and 4.83, rating five items as "Strongly Agree" and ten as "Agree." In terms of practice, farmers demonstrated high to highest levels of AWD implementation across ten practices, with mean scores ranging from 4.00 to 4.67. Furthermore, farmers' AWD practice levels were significantly associated with gender, age, total rice farming area, AWD farming area, and attitude towards AWD (p < 0.05), while farming experience and attendance in AWD training showed marginal significance (p < 0.1).