Guidelines for Promoting Financial Edcuation to Farmers: Case Study of Comprehensive Agro-Localization Product Development, Chiang Rai Province
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Financial literacy is an essential skill for living because it is an important condition in financial planning to cope with urgent situations to have a good quality of life. Financial organizations, especially central banks in several countries have created initiatives to find appropriate ways to promote financial education to their own citizens. In addition, there are also important debates: (1) What is/are the main factors that should be focused on ensuring that citizens have good financial literacy including financial attitude, financial behavior, or financial knowledge? And (2) What guidelines for financial education should we establish for each group of citizens?
This study evaluated the achievements of the financial education for the farmers in the Comprehensive Agro-localization Product Development project in Chiang Rai Province or the Alternative Farmers project. The course name is “Ka-Sat-Ta-Korn-Mee-Tung” and it was developed by the Bank of Thailand for farmers specifically, 25 farmers from 4 pilot districts in Chiang Rai. The course focuses on changing financial attitudes and behaviors. During this project, we observed that changing attitudes and behaviors were the starting point for better financial management by the farmers.
To evaluate our results, we looked at 3 factors: Changes in financial attitudes, changes in financial behaviors and maintaining financial sustainability through a Participatory Action Research (PAR) project in which we took the roles of assistant lecturer and farmer mentor.
The results showed that farmers have changed in all 3 aspects: Financial behavior, 96 percent of the farmers now have started savings. Regarding financial attitude, there are now good signs that they have changed their thinking about finance. For example, the farmers participating in the course have set financial goals and are determined to achieve them. In addition, attitudes that resulted in seeing their financial status as a barrier to doing things in life have been mitigated. Regarding financial sustainability, it was found that 84 percent of farmers have decided to continue to follow their plan for saving money. They also have a positive attitude towards financial education, and applying what they have learned in this course to daily lives.
From the evaluation of the course achievement, we established 5 important guidelines for promoting financial education to the farmers: (1) Curriculum design should be developed by directly surveying the target group (the farmers themselves) to establish their perceived problems. (2) The type of training should be done in conjunction with a main activity which motivates the participants (farmers) to use the target financial skill or change their attitude or behavior. (3) The training model includes workshops and periodic follow ups to determine whether the changes in attitude and behavior have resulted in a sustainable financial condition. (4) The training period should be off-harvest so that farmers can participate in all activities and (5) Training venues; Keep a distance between each learner in doing activities related to personal finances.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Copyright
Connexion: Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences has an exclusive right to publish the accepted articles in any form. However, the author retains the following rights:
1. The right to the ownership of the article;
2. The right to use all or part of the article in his/her other works;
3. The right to re-produce the article for personal use or for use in the author’s organisation, in which case the author must obtain permission from Connexion: Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences;
4. The right to make copies of all or part of the work for educational use or for the author’s use in classroom teaching; and
5. The right to include the work (both the preprinted and printed versions) in an institutional repository.
References
Atkinson, A., McKay, S., Collard, S., & Kempson, E. (2006) Levels of financial capability in the UK, Public Money and Management, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 29-36.
Alsemgeest, L. (2015) Arguments for and against financial literacy education: Where to go from here?, International Journal of Consumer Studies, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 155-161.
Alternative Farmers Project. (2020) Photo album, Available: https://www.facebook.com/capdcr/photos [1 April 2021]
Amonhaemanon, D., & Isaramalai, S. (2020) Boosting financial literacy: The roles to enhance quality of life, ABAC Journal, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 85-108.
Bank of Thailand. (2016) Thai financial skill survey 2016 (รายงานผลการสำรวจทักษะทางการเงินของไทย ปี 2559), Available: http://doh.hpc.go.th/data/HL/ThaiFinancialSkillSurvey2559.pdf [1 April 2021] (in Thai)
Hanphichai, S. (2020) Household debt of Thai farmers: Currently knowledge and some observations (หนี้สินครัวเรือนเกษตรกรไทย: สถานภาพความรู้ปัจจุบันและข้อสังเกตบางประการ), Journal of Modern Learning Development, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 191-211. (in Thai)
Huston, S. J. (2010) Measuring financial literacy, Journal of Consumer Affairs, vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 296-316.
Lusardi, A., Michaud, P. C., & Mitchell, O. S. (2017) Optimal financial literacy and wealth inequality, Journal of Political Economy, vol. 125, no. 2, pp. 431-477.
Lusardi, A., & Mitchell, O. S. (2007) Financial literacy and retirement preparedness: Evidence and implications for financial education, Business Economics, vol. 42, no. 1, pp. 35-44.
Lusardi, A., & Mitchell, O. S. (2013) The economic importance of financial literacy: Theory and evidence, Journal of Economic Literature, vol. 52, no. 1, pp. 5-44.
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OEDC). (2020, 5 November) Financial resilience and financial literacy during the COVID-19 crisis, Available: https://www.oecd.org/daf/fin/financial-education/oecd-financial-resilience-webinar-series.htm [1 April 2021]
Paukmongkol, W. (2017) Financial literacy of the public in Prathumthani Province (ความรู้ทางการเงินของประชาชนจังหวัดปทุมธานี), Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Valaya Alongkorn, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 313-322. (in Thai)
Remund, D. L. (2010) Financial literacy explicated: The case for a clearer definition in an increasingly complex economy, Journal of Consumer Affairs, vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 276-295. Available: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6606.2010.01169.x [26 May 2021]
Wills, E. (2009) Spirituality and subjective well-being: Evidences for a new domain in the personal well-being index, Journal of Happiness Studies, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 49-69.
Yoong, J. (2011) ‘Financial illiteracy and stock market participation: Evidence from the RAND American life panel’ in O. S. Mitchell & A. Lusardi (eds.), Financial literacy: Implications for retirement security and the financial marketplace, Oxford: Oxford University Press.