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The role of farmer organizations and networks in the rice supply chain in Thailand

Jedsadaporn Sathapatyanon (Department of Food, Agriculture and Bioresources, Asian Institute of Technology, Khlong Nueng, Thailand)
John K.M. Kuwornu (Department of Food, Agriculture and Bioresources, Asian Institute of Technology, Khlong Nueng, Thailand)
Ganesh Prasad Shivakoti (Department of Food, Agriculture and Bioresources, Asian Institute of Technology, Khlong Nueng, Thailand)
Peeyush Soni (Department of Agricultural Systems and Engineering, Asian Institute of Technology, Khlong Nueng, Thailand)
Anil Kumar Anal (Department of Food, Agriculture and Bioresources, Asian Institute of Technology, Khlong Nueng, Thailand)
Avishek Datta (Department of Food, Agriculture and Bioresources, Asian Institute of Technology, Khlong Nueng, Thailand)

Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies

ISSN: 2044-0839

Article publication date: 3 September 2018

1261

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the development of rice supply chain in the context of the role of rice farmer organizations and cooperative networks in Thailand.

Design/methodology/approach

Primary data were solicited from the cooperatives and members of cooperatives for this study through questionnaire administration. The questionnaire containing a five-point Likert scale was posed to respondents to ascertain their problems before and after joining the network (for cooperative) and after joining the cooperative (for members). This study employed the independent two-sample student t-test (two-tailed) to test for significant difference in the means of scores regarding the problems of cooperatives before and after the cooperative network, and also to test for significant difference in the means of scores of the problems of members of the cooperatives before and after joining the cooperative.

Findings

The study revealed that key production and marketing problems such as increased transaction costs and market uncertainties confronting the cooperative organizations have been diminished as a result of the networks. Key problems of the members of the cooperatives such as exploitation and opportunistic behavior of traders to whom they sell their products have been reduced as a result of joining the cooperatives.

Research limitations/implications

This paper is not without caveat. The governance structures in relation to leadership, financial arrangements and bargaining power balance have not been analyzed in this study and these are avenues for further research.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first that examined the combined roles of farmer organizations and cooperative networks in developing the rice supply chain in Thailand.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MOAC), Thailand and the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand for providing financial assistance with a scholarship to the first author for graduate studies at the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. Further, the authors benefited from tremendous support from the staff of Provincial Cooperatives offices, Cooperatives and member farmers in the study areas for the time, assistance and information provided during the data collection.

Citation

Sathapatyanon, J., Kuwornu, J.K.M., Shivakoti, G.P., Soni, P., Anal, A.K. and Datta, A. (2018), "The role of farmer organizations and networks in the rice supply chain in Thailand", Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies, Vol. 8 No. 3, pp. 554-578. https://doi.org/10.1108/JADEE-01-2017-0016

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited

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