Development of the Elderly’s Potential in Creating Careers with Local Wisdom in Making Organic Pickled Vegetables at Ban Khok Kong, Non-Sa-at Sub-district, Khon Sawan District, Chaiyaphum Province

Abstract

Thailand is entering an aging society, and most of the elderly have experience in living and working and knowledge that will always be passed on to the next generation. The researcher team, therefore, would like to find a way to develop the elderly’s potential from tacit knowledge to develop new knowledge in creating careers and developing products for sale and allowing the elderly to have activities, earn income, and gather knowledge for the development of community enterprises. The objectives of this research were 1) to study the process of growing vegetables and processing organic pickled vegetables with local wisdom, 2) to develop the process of processing organic pickled vegetables with local wisdom, 3) to develop the elderly’ potential, and 4) to promote the establishment of the elderly enterprise group. The research results can be presented as follows.

         The vegetable growing process and organic pickled vegetables with local wisdom: The elderly usually starts planting vegetables as a supplementary occupation. They do it as a leisure activity after the rice harvest season, from November to January, which is a suitable time for growing vegetables with a short growing period, such as green lettuce and spring onions. The elderly usually sells their grown vegetables in the community and the remaining vegetables are pickled for preservation.

        The development of the processing process of organic pickled vegetables with local wisdom: In the past, the elderly made pickled vegetables based on the knowledge that had been passed on from their grandparents and parents in their families. The process of making pickled vegetables in each household was similar, but it was not systematically recorded with clear procedures. For this reason, the taste of pickled vegetables in each household was not the same. The research team was aware of these issues, so we collected information, and synthesized the method of making pickled vegetables from the knowledge of the elderly to learn about the ingredients and the standardized methods for making pickled vegetables with constant taste to develop the processing process of organic pickled vegetables to meet the standards.

        The development of the elderly’ potential in the processing process of organic pickled vegetables: The elderly’s potential was developed by the workshop. They had to do every step of making organic pickled vegetables. Due to the knowledge and the wisdom of the elderly, the science and art of living that have been inherited for a long time from generation to generation, combined with knowledge and technology in various resolutions and the development process with appropriate knowledge meeting the needs of the elderly, it can the elderly can generate their income. This can also build career stability for the elderly and create good health leading to full potential development which corresponds to the concept of “Active Aging”.

        The establishment of the elderly enterprise group: The elderly group established the community enterprise group, called “Plod Pai Wai Kao Farmers Community Enterprise”, (registration code: 4-36-03-04/1-0015) in May 12, 2022.