Management Guidelines to Reduce Costs and Increase Productivity by Applying Information Technology to Increase the Market Competitiveness of Jasmine Rice in Sisaket Province

Abstract

The objectives of this research are 1) to study the conditions and problems in rice production of rice growers in the area; 2) to study and analyze the reducing of the costs and the increasing of the production, and barrier factors affecting the production and quality management of jasmine rice in Sisaket province; 3) to analyze marketing methods, distribution channels, and the role of the market in determining the quality of jasmine rice in Sisaket province; and 4) to apply information technology to increase the market competitiveness of jasmine rice according to the suitability of the area in Sisaket province. The research methodology is a mixed method of a quantitative research, a qualitative research and an action research with the concept of cost reduction by increasing productivity and using production factors efficiently and effectively, and by applying the concepts of information in the category of social media such as Facebook to increase the distribution channels of the products of the group. The population used in this study is Organic Jasmine Rice Community Enterprise, Sisaket province. The target group is 50 key informants, sampling of 329 people and 30 IT trained people using information systems. The tools used in the study consisted of interview forms, questionnaires and training evaluation forms. The analysis used quantitative statistics (Quantitative Method) including statistics, percentage, average analysis, factor analysis and theories of economics, statistics and mathematics, and focus group discussions of 15 target groups. The data obtained were synthesized and analyzed to present as the descriptive data.

The research found that:

1) The farmers did not have enough income, they combined groups to create activities for creating community funding sources to expand rice varieties and produce rice that is standardized by the community with the bargaining power and the pricing. However, there were various problems including (1) problems of expanding the export market at the national and international levels; (2) problems of the development of paddy fields and products to receive geographical indications or GI; (3) problems of insufficient production system; (4) insufficient storage houses; (5) lack of accounting knowledge; (6) problems of lack of knowledge on privatization; (7) problems of knowledge of production cost reduction; (8) problems of lack of knowledge in product distribution channel management; (9) problems of attitude and behavior of rice farmers; (10) capital or budget problems; (11) marketing promotion problems from government agencies irrelevant to distribution channels; and (12) the problem of lack of machines for processing jasmine rice.

2) Presently, the jasmine rice farmers in Sisaket province with labor costs for rice production in all processes found that the expenses that caused the burden for rice farmers are the most burden of borrowing money to invest in rice production, and having to pay interest on the loan more than 1 source of loan while calculating the break-even point of organic jasmine rice production cost of 5,856.14 baht/rai; sale of agricultural products with an average of 19.04 baht/kilogram; the agricultural production of 416.45 kilograms/rai; sales revenue 7,929.20 baht/rai with net profit 825.86 baht per rai; 14.06 baht/kg average selling price per unit. There are six factors affecting the quantity of rice production; agriculture families, farming experience, hiring labor in farming, rice seed testing, seed use rate per rai with statistical significance at the level of .05. When considering the independent variables that have the power to predict the change in the amount of rice production, the best is farming experience.

3) Marketing methods, distribution channels, and standards of jasmine rice in Sisaket province consisted of (1) promoting the potential of rice growers; (2) promoting distribution channels with electronic commerce systems; (3) increasing productivity in the sale of rice growers; (4) product design; (5) creation of the image and production identity of the group; (6) creating a network of organic rice production; and (7) production accounting preparation.

4) Application of information technology such as creating a page via Facebook to increase the market competitiveness of jasmine rice according to suitability of areas in Sisaket province found that (1) the total level of knowledge and understanding before attending training and operating using information technology was at a low level; (2) the satisfaction of lecturers and training media was at a high level; and (3 ) the overall satisfaction of knowledge and understanding after the training was at the medium level.