Managerial Administration of Farming Machinery for Rice Production

Problem statement: This research was conducted due to an increase of agricultural machinery cost for rice production (46.00%) of farmers in Phichit province. Based on an analysis of cost reduction using the method of John Deere, it was found that this may decrease from 46.00-28.50% of the total cost. Thus, there was a question how to mange the agricultural machinery. The objective of this research was to investigate the pattern of managerial administration of farming machinery for rice production, Phichit province. Approach: Research methodology in this research had many steps: In-depth interview with rice farmer members and farmer institution executives having good practice; an analysis of internal and external factors concerning about the managerial administration of rice farmer group; public hearing forum of stakeholders on rice farmer group management and the investigation of decision-making on the selection of management strategies. Descriptive statistics and Pearson co-efficient relation were used in this research. Results: Findings showed that there were four models of the managerial administration of agricultural machinery as follows: External hiring, co-investment, networking and participatory maintenance. For the management of farmer group, it should be in the form of networking connecting each sub-group. Also, it should have a coordination center for the planning of agricultural machinery, capital and welfare management. The management was dependent on three groups of strategies: (1) strategy a-the improvement of the managerial administration structure and grouping concept base; (2) strategy b-the development of potential and quality of the managerial administration and (3) strategy c-the creation of atmosphere in the participatory managerial administration of agricultural machinery, respectively. Conclusion: The implementation based on this model caused the farmers have confidence, unity and systematic working and power on the persuasions for group activity participation more than ever.