COMMUNITY HERBAL ENTERPRISE SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT IN LOEI PROVINCE

Abstract

The objectives of this research were 1) to study the current state and the problems of the herbal group community enterprise in Loei Province, and 2) to develop the herbal group community enterprise system. The participatory action research (PAR) was used in this research. The target group consisted of community leaders, housewives group, public health volunteers, local philosophers, herbal healers, members of the herbal group, and related groups including the representative from the Loei Provincial Public Health Office, Loei Provincial Community Development Office, Loei Provincial Agriculture Office total of 70 people. The results of the study found that: 1) The current condition of community enterprise operations was divided into three systems. In the upstream system, it was found that the operation was not yet systematic. Most of them were planted according to the villagers' way of trial and error. The problem was how to harvest the herbs. Lack of knowledge in collecting herbs including a lack of knowledge about planting herbs drying herbs as well as lack of proper knowledge about privatization. As for the mid-water system, it was found that in the community enterprises, there were operations in processing various products using traditional production technology, grinding, cutting herbs, and drying. The problem was that the production process was not modern and was not clean. It also used folk the wisdom processing which has not been transformed into exotic products, and the downstream systems found the Products were sold only in the village, they were not sold outside the village. The problem was marketing Online marketing has not been successful. and 2) the results of the development of the herbal community enterprise system that has been developed upstream by herbal products development as savory food, sweet food, herbal drink, and health supplement products. The development of the midstream was created the brand, a logo that was the identity of the herbal group, and develop beautiful packaging. The development of the downstream was promoted by both community marketing and online marketing, and to create a website to sell products for the group. As a result of development, it create income in the household.