Development of the Participatory Community-Based Curry Paste Products: A Case of a Curry Paste Making Women Group at Ban Hua Koh Chang, Pak Thae Sub-district, Ranot District, Songkhla Province, Thailand

Abstract

The objectives of this research were 1) to study the general condition of the curry paste making women group at Ban Hua Koh Chang, Pakterra Sub-district, Ranot District, Songkhla Province 2) to develop community-based curry paste products of the curry paste making women group and 3) to study guidelines for the promotion and development of the curry paste making women group. This research is a qualitative research focused on participatory action research.

The results showed that: Pak Tae Sub-district is one of the communities where the villagers are still facing with occupational problems. Therefore, a group of women to make curry paste at Ban Hua Koh Chang was established in order to provide careers and generate incomes to the villagers in the community. Initially, the group's curry paste was produced with hand-used pestle, later it was changed to electrical grinder. However, the group still had several problems especially the problem of product image and the problem of controlling of raw materials cost. Therefore, these brought to the participatory development of community-based curry paste products. There were 7 activities in the development which are; group logo development, label development, packaging development, demonstration, of growing organic chili peppers, promotion of using fresh milk hormones to accelerate the growth of chili peppers, and creation of a product fanpage. All the activities were conducted with a focus on the participation from various sectors known as “Watchara” (a Thai initial of a temple, a community, and government). The guidelines for promoting and developing the group was included of the development of additional products of curry by various forms of value-added, promoting organic demonstration plots of other growing raw materials, to clearly define the group structure, and to promoting the knowledge transfer in order to increase the potentiality of the group.