MANAGING THE HARVEST OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS TO MEET MARKET DEMAND: A CASE STUDY OF THE ORGANIC FARMING COMMUNITY ENTERPRISE IN PHETCHABURI PROVINCE

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to investigate basic data and information regarding harvest planning of agricultural products for organic farming community enterprises in Phetchaburi Province. Moreover, this research aims to create an agricultural product linear programming model aligned with market demand, then compare harvest management costs were compared between the current model and the linear programming model. Mixed methods approach were employed to collect data, utilizing structured interviews. The sample was selected through purposive sampling technique. Series of depth interview were undertaken with one president of a community enterprise group and four community enterprise group members.

The data collection revealed that, in the current harvest planning process, farmers heavily rely on their personal farming experience, leading to less efficient harvest planning. The researcher, therefore, created a linear programming model. In order to minimize the total cost of harvesting agricultural products. Three components of expenses considered were 1) expenses for harvesting agricultural products, 2) expenses for maintaining them while the agricultural products remain in the planting plot, and 3) expenses for purchasing agricultural products from farmer members in community enterprise groups. Later, the average was calculated using the Solver tool which is an add-ins function in Microsoft Excel. The results indicated that after applying the linear programming model to manage the harvesting of agricultural products total expenses were reduced from 226,626 baht to 188,025 baht, representing a decrease of 38,601 baht or 17.03 percent.