A Guidelines for Developing Agricultural Community Potential Toward Small and Micro Community Enterprise in Chiang Mai Province

Abstract

The objectives of this research were to 1) examine the knowledge in agricultural management processes 2) investigate operational strengths, weaknesses, problems and threats and 3) explore the guidelines for improving the potential of farming community groups in Chiang Mai province. The purposive sampling method was used to collect the data from 120 group members. The test containing 16 aspects of the knowledge in agricultural management was administered and the data were analyzed for mean and standard deviation. The purposive sampling method was also applied to select stakeholders for a focus group discussion and 40 agricultural group members in the province by using the potential analysis for the agricultural enterprise groups. The data were analyzed by using the SWOT Analysis. The research results revealed that 1) their knowledge level on each aspect was at a moderate level 2) their strength was their specialized knowledge. Their weakness was that they had little negotiation power against middlemen. Their opportunity was that they received support from various sectors and their threat was that market competition was high. 3) The potential development guidelines were as follows. The rice production groups should collaborate with educational institutions and other farming groups to share their knowledge; the longan production groups should employ legal migrant workers from neighboring countries; the vegetable production groups should work collaboratively in order to empower themselves; the fruit production groups should form into a group to create negotiation power against consumers;  and the agro-processing groups should exploit online media to publicize their products and establish a central market for their product distribution.