Hypothesis 5 Tree densities in paddy fields are higher in
areas with larger-sized landholdings than in areas with
smaller-sized landholdings.
In order to examine if the density of trees in paddy fields
is related to size of landholdings, the basic village-level
information database of the Community Development
Department (Table 1) was utilized. Mean agricultural land
holding size in the sub-district (tambol) level was calculated from the database. Based on the mean agricultural
landholding size of the largest share of the area within the
cell, all of the sample grid cells were categorized into a
smaller-sized landholding group with an area of 2.0 ha or
less (62 grid cells), with a mean area of 1.5 ha, and
larger-sized landholding group with an area of 2.1 ha or
more (136 grid cells), with a mean area of 3.2 ha. Five grid
cells were excluded from this analysis because of lack of
data. The majority of the cells (70 %) contain an area with
only a single mean landholding size or have more than
70 % of their area in the same size category (22 %), while
only 8 % of the cells have70 % of their area in the same
size category. The statistical significance of density differences between the larger-sized land holding group and
the smaller-sized landholding group was tested with the
two-sided Mann–Whitney U test.