Poverty and Income Inequality among Agricultural Households in Buriram Province, Thailand

The purposes of this research were to investigate the characteristics and seriousness of poverty, and income distribution and to study the factors of economy, social, and human capability that could cause poverty in agriculture households in Buriram. The primary data were obtained from 568 agriculture households in Buriram. The secondary data were retrieved from the National Statistical Office, the National Economic and Social Development Board, Information Center for Rural Development, and Department of Community Development. The data were analyzed by using the descriptive statistics in order to find the relationship between independent variables and the excess income over expenditure by means of Regression and the causes of poverty by Probit Model. The research findings revealed that the significant characteristics of agriculture households were concluded as follows: they did rice-farming as a main occupation, using natural water sources. In addition, the highest position of extra occupation was general labour. Of the sample agriculture households, the proportion of the poor was 71%, and the coefficient of the income distribution, Gini coefficient of income from nonagricultural activities is more than that of income from
agricultural activities. The factors causing poverty were lacking of idea in problem solving, lacking of occupational capability, burdensome person, no extra occupations, and price variation of main agricultural products. The recommendation on poverty eradication was to systematically troubleshoot the root causes as well as to seek assistance fiom governmental and private sectors.