Contract Farming for The Chicken Farming Business in Thailand

บทคัดย่อ

The objectives of this study were to 1) study the situation and role of contract farming in Thailand. 2) analyze SWOT of the chicken farming business in Thailand. Methodologies are both descriptive research using secondary data and field surveys by in-depth interviews with the relevant parties including farmers, private companies and academics through specific sampling.

The results of this study showed that 1) the contract farming situation in Thailand tends to expand continuously and plays an important role in the production of agricultural products for export and employment. In addition, the development of contract farming is largely driven by big corporation investments such as Charoen Pokphand Foods, and Betagro Group. Most of the contract farming value is concentrated in a few large private companies. In the past, contract farming has often been in conflict between contract parties and small farmers were often at a disadvantage because of their low bargaining power. However, when the government issued the Contract Farming Promotion and Development Act (2017), it resulted in more fair protection for contract parties as well as being more transparent and being overseen by the government, thus allowing the problems to decline. 2) SWOT analysis revealed that its strength is the parties have a long experience in raising chickens. In addition, private companies have modern technology and transfer it to farmers. Therefore, the production in the contract system is efficient and meets acceptable standards. The weaknesses, there are still some unfair contracts. Especially small chicken farmers who do not have much choice. For the opportunity, it is found that the export market for chicken and its products continued to expand. It has a positive impact on chicken farming business while the main obstacle is the rising cost of chicken feed due to inflationary pressure.