The purpose of this thesis is to gather facts about agricultural Conditions in rural villages of Chonburi Province, since Chonburi is a province widely developed in agriculture and industry. Information and data used in this study have dean obtained from the study of Socio-economic profile in Chonburi Project of the Chulalongkarn University Social Science Research Institute, carried out during the period of 1970-1972. Interview guides, questionnaires, and participant observation were used to obtain information from farmers in the three villages studied. The object of this study is to try to understand the socio¬economic nature of three agricultural communities in terms of crop cultivation : rice, cassava and sugarcane. The following three villages have been chosen as sample villages in this study Muban Nang Sai in Amphur Panat-Nikom, Muban Nong PaiKeaw in Amphur BanBung, and Muban BangSa-rai in Amphur Sattahip. From the villages studied, we find that in Nong Sai, a village whore rice, cassava, vegetables and fruit trees are grown, there are two types of agriculture : rice for household consumption and cassava as industrial crop. In terms of agricultural activities, this village may be classified as an agro-industrial village. In contrast, in Nang Pai Keaw, the type of agricultural activities are also agro-industry but the crops planted in the village are sugarcane and cassava. The farmers have to rent large areas of land for farming. In terms of now technologies, farmers in the two villages are about as far advanced as one another. In Nong Sai, the farmers use pesticides and herbicides while the farmers in Nong Pai Keaw use tractors. The use of ace technology and not another depends on the local conditions and usefulness of the technology. Bang Sa-rae is the most advanced village among the three villages studied since the people are wage,-earners and fisherman. The village is located near Sattahip, therefore the farmers can become wage-earners and many do not work on agricultural land. anymore. Their income tends to be higher than that of the farmers working in the fields. This village cannot be classified as an agricultural village even though the type of agriculture practices is agro-industry because the farmers have small land and there is no more land to operate.
