Ways to start up sustainable orange orchards investment in Amphur Muang, Loei province (Thai)

Abstract

The objective of this research was to find an appropriate business management system for sustainable crop production and long – term productivities by using data analysis of the situations of orange orchards in Amphur Muang, Loei province. The sites were selected using purposive random sampling of 30 orange plantation areas according to the number of orange trees, classified as small, medium and large orchards. The interviews were conducted with 10 orange growers who are involved in the orange business and related to government agencies and private sector. All data was processed by using basic statistics analysis and descriptive analysis. This research indicates that the most orange farmers (60 %) fail with their account systems as they don’t know the real value of investment so they don’t know if there is profit or loss or when the pay back period will be. Most orange farmers, especially small orchards, do not use a record accounting system. If they had an excellent business plan for orange orchards which consists of marketing plan, production plan, organization plan and financial plan for decision making and planning before they start up their investment in orange orchards, it would lead to systematic and efficient, sustainable management.