Development on the Strength of Community in 9 Happy Farm Prototype Village, Sing Buri Province

Abstract

The 9 happy farm prototype village had performed King Bhumibol's Philosophy. The 9 happy farm market was also established to merchandise organic agricultural products. The research objectives were to 1) investigate problems and needs of farmers in the community in 9 happy farm prototype village, 2) develop farmers’ skills in the marketing management for the 9 happy farm prototype village, and 3)examine farmers’ attitudes on developing of the strength of community in 9 happy farm prototype village. Key informants consisted of village leaders, local wisdom scholars, farmers, and staffs from both public and private sectors. Moreover, population in the quantitative research comprised of 51 farmers. Research instruments were focus groups, in-depth interviews, and a set of questionnaires with the reliability of 0.951. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze quantitative data. The content analysis was used to analyze qualitative data. The research findings revealed that farmers’ problems were the lacks of marketing knowledge and skills. Farmers’ needs were to increase their skills to present and sell identity community products. According to a development process on the strength of community in 9 happy farm prototype village, researchers provided the training workshop in courses of “product displays for the community market” and “design and development on green logistics packaging”. After these training workshop courses, farmers’ knowledge and understanding were at high level. In addition, farmers’ knowledge use and implementation were at the highest level. Furthermore, the development on the strength of community in 9 happy farm prototype village, in overall was at high level. the arithmetic mean could be ranged from maximum to minimum as follows: community network, community production, and sales and distribution of agricultural products.