Planning rice cultivation in a large plot agricultural system

Montri Singhavara,Sakkarin Nonthapot,Kamoltip Panyasit

doi:10.5267/j.dsl.2021.10.003

Abstract

This research aimed to study the approach of the community toward the decision to grow rice and economic crops, including appropriate resource allocation for use on a farm under a large plot agricultural system. The study areas were in Phan district, Chiang Rai province, Thailand, and the data were collected from a sampling of 400 field agriculturalists. The method used was to develop a mathematical model for growing crops with multi-objectives and in multi-periods, together with an agriculturist representative and experts in multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM). This was to prioritize the importance of alternative crops and find the appropriate allocation of the resources to achieve the targeted goal. The results showed that agriculturists prioritized most toward the criteria for growing Japanese rice with a weight of 0.179 Kg., followed by transplanted rice, transplanted glutinous rice, garlic, sown paddy rice, and sown glutinous paddy rice, respectively. The study’s results also showed that the price fluctuation of the crop products resulted in more use of land and labor in order to increase the production to compensate for the low price, and this also resulted in the higher opportunity cost of growing transplanted rice. Therefore, growing transplanted rice during in season planting was considered the most effective way, while during the off season, either garlic or Japanese rice could be grown. A collective pattern for planning for using resources together in large plot agricultural areas, together with a clear marketing target would bring about effective use of the resources and reduce the risk in revenue from the fluctuation in prices and uncertainty of yields from drought. Moreover, technology development to solve the problem of the lack of labor would be deemed an important approach toward the enhancement of the competitiveness of agriculturists in the future as well.

Highlights

With regard to the structural problem of Thailand’s rice production system and the importance of rice cultivators in the Upper Northern region, the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives planned and initiated the policy to solve the rice problem for all agriculturalists for the long run
It demonstrated that the agriculturalists had the goal to produce rice for a sustainable return under the scope of the large agricultural plot guidelines, which consisted of six alternatives that were transplanted rice (C), sown paddy rice (V), transplanted glutinous rice (B), and sown glutinous rice (E), and economic crops that were Japanese rice (J) and garlic (G)
The results of the study represented that the agriculturalists mainly gave priority to the economic factors, the price factors because the living costs and production costs were higher, and this prioritized the economic factors before health and the environment

Summary

Introduction

With regard to the structural problem of Thailand’s rice production system and the importance of rice cultivators in the Upper Northern region, the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives planned and initiated the policy to solve the rice problem for all agriculturalists for the long run. The active policy in the fiscal year 2016 included the promotion of large agricultural plots This implementation with the rice cultivators aimed to encourage them to coordinate together for the large agricultural plots. The goal of this policy was to reduce the costs in order to enhance the competitive advantage of the rice cultivators (economy of scale). The responsibility of the agricultural groups according to the large agricultural plot guidelines consisted of 1) the gathering and process management of the group to operate the large agricultural plot, 2) cooperative production and marketing with the analytical process and target setting (return, production quantity, and price), 3) managing the implementation plan and selecting appropriate technology for the production and marketing process, and 4) deciding the use of the production factors by collaborating together for the purchase or procurement. The results of the study would support the building of the original model of the large agricultural plot guidelines and the development of precision agriculture or smart farmers that would evaluate the competitiveness of Thai agriculturalists in the future

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion