Guidelines for Promoting Financial Edcuation to Farmers: Case Study of Comprehensive Agro-Localization Product Development, Chiang Rai Province

Main Article Content

Chollada Wongpanich
Kitsada Srisuwan

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

How to Cite
Wongpanich, C., & Srisuwan, K. (2021). Guidelines for Promoting Financial Edcuation to Farmers: Case Study of Comprehensive Agro-Localization Product Development, Chiang Rai Province. Connexion: Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 10(2), 25–35. Retrieved from https://so05.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/MFUconnexion/article/view/253237
Section
Research article

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