Self Reliance of Food-processing Community Enterprises in Sing Buri Province

Abstract

     This study aimed to investigate a level of self-reliance of food processing community enterprises in Sing Buri province. Five aspects of self-reliance were taken into consideration: technology, economy, natural resources, spirit and society. The sample group comprised 51 food processing community enterprise groups and each group had the president, the secretary the treasurer and group members. Each group was considered as unit of analysis. Interview schedule was used for data collection and analyzed by using descriptive statistics: frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation. Results of the study revealed that most of the informants 80.5 percent were female, 53.6 years old on average and elementary school graduates. The informants had a yearly income for 167,692 baht but most of them 82.2 percent had debts. They had an experience in joining a community enterprise group for 5.1 years on average. Most of the informants perceived information about community enterprises through agricultural extension workers. The informants had a high level of knowledge and understanding about community enterprise and they strongly agreed to its tasks, regarding self-reliance of food processing community enterprises in Sing Buri province, it was found that, as a whole, they had a high level of self-reliance. Based on its details they had a highest level of self-reliance in terms of natural resources, The following aspects were found at a high level : spirit society and technology, respectively. Some community enterprise groups had a financial problem for their operation and marketing/management still be main problems. They suggested that concerned agencies should extend knowledge to the food processing community enterprises groups on the basis of finance, management and marketing for progress product development.