Research on the Improvement and the Development of Agricultural Products in the Communities for Food Safety System under ASEAN Economic Community (AEC)

Abstract

The objective were to study and to increase the potential of agricultural communities in Chiang Mai and develop the agricultural products in the communities for the Food Safety System under ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), based upon the Sustainable Economy Philosophy. This qualitative research was supported by the quantitative analysis and Chosen as a sample group by purposive sampling from 5 groups of volunteering farmers from 5 Thumbols. PAR, was implemented along with the SWOT analysis to interpret the potential of the communities using statistical data in terms of averages from descriptive statistics. In addition, 6-dimenion analysis was also conducted to measure the achievement of the project development and to demonstrate the potential
of the farmers in order to offer suggestions for the improvement and the development of the agricultural products in the Chiang Mai communities for the Food Safety System under ASEAN Economic Community. It was found from the research that the strengths of all 5 groups of farmers in Chiang Mai was their
expertise in production, marketing, soil quality, product processing, promotion, group accounting management and knowledge transfer. On the other hand, their weakness was the lack of knowledge regarding good and effective farming. Their most important possible opportunity was the support of governmental agencies in farming and knowledge sharing; while their threat was that the needs for their agricultural products were limited to regular customers in their own communities. From the mentioned potential of farmers in Chiang Mai, 7 guidelines to improve and develop the agricultural products in the communities for the Food Safety System under ASEAN Economic Community based upon the Sustainable Economy Philosophy are as follows: 1) Planning; 2) Safe Production and Standards; 3) Business Negotiations; 4) Knowledge Acquisition; 5) Cooperation and Integration with
Other Related Parties; 6) Farmer’s Prototype Creation and 7) Safe Farming Based on Sustainable Economy