The Power of Modern Agricultural Knowledge and Formal Education Vs the Power of Traditional Agricultural Knowledge and Nonformal Education for Development of Innovation
in agriculture sector in Thailand
Atchara Sriphan
Naresuan University
Abstract
The research questions of this work involve the power relation between the power of modern agricultural knowledge and formal education and the power of traditional agricultural knowledge and nonformal education for development of innovation in agriculture sector in Thailand. Specifically, this research attempts to study 1) the power of modern agricultural knowledge and formal education for development of innovation in production process of Thai farmers, 2) the power traditional agricultural knowledge and nonformal education for development of innovation in production process of Thai farmers, and 3) the process of creating the balance of power of modern agricultural knowledge and formal education and the power of traditional agricultural knowledge and nonformal education for development of innovation in agriculture sector in Thailand.
This research is qualitative research using the period of 2014-2015. Findings are as follows: 1) the modern agricultural knowledge and formal education had not absolutely power for development of innovation in production process of Thai farmers because this knowledge is theoritical knowledge that separate from practical knowledge, 2) the traditional agricultural knowledge and nonformal education had power for development of innovation in production process of Thai farmers, and most of farmers in Thailand had perceive and use this knowledge from Thai wisdom for develop innovation in production process, 3) due to competitive pressure of connected global market, capital even at the local level is getting scare. Farmers in Thailand are becoming aware of this problem, and they have been able to fight to gain some grounds especially on natural resource and environmental management issues. Through many educational system, the balance of the power between modern agricultural knowledge from formal education and traditional agricultural knowledge from nonformal education for innovation creation in production process of Thai farmers is now spreading to all local community enterprises, 4) various present knowledge transfer activities were currently conducted by few community producers in the research areas such as short course traning, activities in Farmer School, in learning center and from different types of training, and 4) suitable learning style for the development of innovation in production process of Thai farmer as indicated by this research is the use of participatory learning model that from all of educational system, 7 K Model.This model was separated 7 steps, knowledge identification, knowledge acquisition, knowledge sharing, knowledge creation, knowledge use, knowledge evaluation, and new knowledge and innovation dissemination.
Keywords: Knowledge and Innovation, Power of Knowledge, Farmer’s Education