Knowledge Management Model in Food Crop Cultivation for Food Security in the Central Region of Thailand

Abstract

The objectives of this research were: 1) to study the basic condition, the receiving of knowledge management, the receiving of and the needs for the knowledge on food crop cultivation for food security, and food security conditions of the crop cultivators in the central region; 2) to study factors affecting the knowledge management practices regarding food crop cultivation for food security of knowledge managers in the central region; 3) to study knowledge management relating to food crop cultivation for food security of representatives from government, private, and public sectors; and 4) to create a model of knowledge management in food crop cultivation for food security in the central region. This research used mixed methodology. The populations and samples were divided into 3 groups. The first group of population consisted of 3,088 crop cultivators from the central region who passed the non-toxic agriculture training. The sample size of 354 was selected by purposive sampling method from 7 provinces which had the highest numbers of crop cultivators. The second group of population consisted of 201 knowledge managers who were non-toxic agriculture trainers. The sample size of 134 was selected by simple sampling method through lotto picking. And the third group were 10 representatives who were dealing with food crop cultivation for food security from government, private, and public sectors. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, multiple regression analysis, and content analysis.

The results showed that 1) The majority of crop cultivators were female with an average age of 53.79 years old and graduated with bachelor’s degree. They received the highest level of knowledge management in knowledge sharing with various training activities in friendly and supportive atmosphere. They received the knowledge on food crop cultivation for food security at a high level. The needs for the knowledge on food crop cultivation for food security were also at a high level. The overall food security conditions in 4 dimensions were at a high level. 2) Factors affected the practices on food crop cultivation for food security of knowledge manager were people and information technology factors at a statistically significant level of 0.01. 3) Overall, the knowledge management of food crop cultivation for food security of the representatives from the government, private and public sectors had 3 main components which were people factors, knowledge management processes, and information technology factors. The representatives agreed on the internal and external success factors at the highest level. 4) The model consisted of the following: (1) Input which consisted of people and information technology factors. People factors required the definition of roles and responsibilities, qualification criteria and empowerment. Information technology factors were social networking, collaboration technology, storage technology, and communication technology. (2) The 8 step processes were knowledge goal, knowledge identification, knowledge acquisition, knowledge refinement, knowledge asset, knowledge sharing, knowledge assessment, and knowledge transfer and distribution. (3) Output which was divided into crop cultivators and knowledge managers output. Crop cultivators gained learning network, knowledge and learning processes whereas knowledge managers gained job accomplishment, learning organization, human resource development and supportive cooperation. The model had internal and external success factors as the influencing factors for reaching the 4 dimensions of food security.