Proposed Learning Community Based on Science and Technology Culture to Enhance the Competitiveness of Thailand’s Agricultural Production

Abstract

The objectives of this mixed-method research were (1) to study a good model for promoting science and technology culture in order to enhance the agricultural production capability of Thailand; (2) to analyze the current condition of and factors that promote the learning community based on science and technology culture in order to enhance the agricultural production capability of Thailand; and (3) to propose a learning community model based on science and technology culture to enhance the agricultural production capability of Thailand. This study was conducted as follows: (1) interviewing three role model researchers and 20 stakeholders, (2) conducting six focus group discussions, and (3) using a questionnaire to collect data from 515 respondents. After that, the collected data were analyzed to design the learning community model based on science and technology culture to enhance the agricultural production capability of Thailand. The results of the study were as follows: (1) the good model for promoting science and technology culture was the one that had research studies to respond to the consumers’ needs that were important factors influencing the prices of various agricultural products; also, there had to be participation in activities with farmers via the field study visits to explore the farmers' actual problems precisely; (2) the current condition that promoted the learning community based on science and technology culture was the existence of a structure that promotes the work performance of the researchers; while the factor that promoted the learning community based on science and technology culture was the creation of channels for creating the  learning community that provides experiences for researchers to access the real problems of the farmers; and (3) the LINKS Model was the model of learning community based on science and technology culture to enhance the agricultural production capability of Thailand  by connecting to this learning community in order to respond to the agricultural sector of Thailand.