Open Journal of Social Sciences, 2021, 9, 491-505 https://www.scirp.org/journal/jss ISSN Online: 2327-5960 ISSN Print: 2327-5952 Supply Chain Analysis of the Production and Marketing of the Marian Plum in the Case of San Khao Farmers, Phitsanulok, Thailand Bhagaporn Watanadumrong, Sujinda Chemsripong Department of Economics, Faculty of Business, Economics and Communications, Naresuan University Mueng, Phitsanulok, Thailand How to cite this paper: Watanadumrong, Abstract B., & Chemsripong, S. (2021). Supply Chain Analysis of the Production and Marketing This research purposes capital analysis related to the marketing system and of the Marian Plum in the Case of San supply chain management from costs and returns analysis of the Marian Plum Khao Farmers, Phitsanulok, Thailand. Open production of agricultures in the local ridge area by employing the quantita- Journal of Social Sciences, 9, 491-505. https://doi.org/10.4236/jss.2021.93032 tive approach and having the interviews of 70 members of Ban Bua Sawan community enterprise located in the areas of Noen Maprang and Wang Thong Received: February 26, 2021 districts follow the principle of Yamane (1967) at 95 percent confidence level Accepted: March 28, 2021 and not over 5 percent missing values. The results from the marketing part Published: March 31, 2021 shows that at present Marian Plum are in highly demand but the farmers cul- Copyright © 2021 by author(s) and tivate Marian Plum are not enough to supply market demand. Marian Plum Scientific Research Publishing Inc. cultivation should be planned to increase in the production areas 1500 rai in This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International order to cover the Marian Plum production about 25 Tons per rai. The direc- License (CC BY 4.0). tion of supply chain management reflects an increase in both Marian Plum http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ production and the GAP standard as well as knowledge management (KM) to Open Access develop, collect, grade size selection and packaging ready for domestic and export standard. The research result of the economic valuation part shows that the farmers have high income and returns, in particular, returns increase in the fourth-year onwards. The benefit-cost (B/C) ratio of each Marian Plum tree in this area is about 6.99 - 21.86 which depends on the selling price or the season. Meanwhile, the average estimation of the B/C of the ridge farmers members’ community enterprise is about 2.70. The suggestions to the farmers should have household account to get the real benefit and cost. Moreover, the members of community enterprise should collaborate the planning and joint marketing to create price negotiation and market support the Marian Plum products together with the study of plums breeding which generate high value creations. The knowledge development of production, species, pest prevention and control should be concerned in order to increase in the export market. DOI: 10.4236/jss.2021.93032 Mar. 31, 2021 491 Open Journal of Social Sciences B. Watanadumrong, S. Chemsripong Keywords Marian Plum, Marketing, Economic Valuation, Agriculture Community Enterprise 1. Introduction The northern region consists of 17 provinces with an area of 106 million Rai, or about a third of the entire country, with the majority of the terrain being fo- rested. There are approximately 29.2 million Rai which is agricultural land, or 20% of the whole country’s area is used for agriculture in 2009. The population in this region is 11.7 million people or 18.5% of the country’s population, which has declined over the past 9 years (compared to the population back in 2000, which was 12.1 million). The average income per capita for 2009 was THB 71,105 (USD 2367), which is lower than the average per capita income of the whole country that is approximately THB 135,281 (USD 4502), which was almost double that of all regions, except the northeast region. The Northern products focus on industrial, agricultural goods and services. The agricultural crops consist of rice, sugarcane, corn, tobacco leaves, nuts, vegetables and fruits. The industrial prod- ucts are electronic components, processing agricultural products, ceramics, sug- ar, cement and handicrafts. A study of Phitsanulok Province from Provincial Products (GPP) found that the population of this province, about 40% of the total workers, was mainly in agriculture. This province is divided into 9 districts, 93 sub-districts, 1048 vil- lages and 321,635 households. Phitsanulok province is an agricultural society since the Sukhothai period. Most of the population is engaged in agriculture, es- pecially farming and gardening. Phitsanulok has a suitable landscape for agri- culture because the city itself is located between two river banks of the Nan River. Its northern and middle geology are plateaued, while the east and north-eastern sides of the province are mountainous. Wang Thong and Noen Maprang dis- tricts are fruit farming areas of Phitsanulok Province (Wattanadumrong & Leark- wararak, 2017). Marian Plum farming is mostly found in Wang Thong and Noen Maprang districts of Phitsanulok, and Sak Lek District of Phichit, both of which are located near the boarders of these two provinces. Research objective 1) To analyze the cost and return of the Marian Plums of the ridge farmers. 2) To analyze the marketing and supply chain management of the Marian Plums between the manufacturer and the consumer, as well as providing infor- mation for the ridge farmers. 3) To adjust and arrange the supply chain to be more effective at the commu- nity level, such as a case study of ridge farmers. The target areas consist of 2 dis- tricts; Chompoo Sub-district within Noen Maprang district and Wang Nok-An, a Sub-district within Wang Thong district, with 6 villages in total, and a group of DOI: 10.4236/jss.2021.93032 492 Open Journal of Social Sciences B. Watanadumrong, S. Chemsripong farmers community enterprises. Scope of the study The scope of the study consists of the production line, marketing, along with the feasibility of selling the Marian Plums, as well as studies the value chain and the relevant factors which affect them, and the farmers who are involved in growing these fruits in Ban Bua Sawan of Wang Thong and Noen Maprang dis- tricts. This research also focuses on related theories for better understanding and initiates the methodology with reliability. Although the administrative areas are bordered between village No. 9, 10, 13 and 14 of Wang Nok-An subdistrict, and Village No. 7 and 9 of Chompoo sub-district within Noen Maprang district1, who were part of Bua Sawan’s integrated agriculture community enterprise group of the ridge farmers, back in December 7, 2010. This group was founded by 17 members, who aimed to gain better living conditions, develop the economy within the areas and eradicate poverty in the communities, due to the people who suf- fered from the loss of mono-cultural crops and low income in 2016, and in 2019, there were 126 members shown in Figure 1. The main principles of ridge farmers: improvising the academic knowledge on agricultural activities, systematically and efficiently, and runs a campaign to monitor the soil quality before the planting phase, under the cooperation of local assistances and the farmers themselves with the help of the knowledge transfer center (24 hours). This office mainly focusses on sharing information among the community, which includes the marketing at local and domestic levels. The production targets of ridge farmers on both areas are to promote and de- velop production processes, cost reduction and develop products that will meet quality standards, as well as increase the seasonal production at the household level. Each community will arrange a meeting between the administrator and its members to discuss various agricultural problems on the 15th day of each month, regarding agricultural market activities, knowledge exchange between members, 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 Number of member of member Number 20 0 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Year Figure 1. The number of annual ridges farmers. Source: Bua Sawan’s integrated agriculture community enterprise. 1Wang Thong district was established in 1895, this district is 17 km3 away from the central district of Phitsanulok, surrounded by the forests and mountains, connected with Noen Maprang district, which separated from this district during 1976. Noen Maprang district was originally a rainforest, full of wildlife and surrounded by over 300 million years old mountain and caves, while there were hunters who temporarily went on hunting, 42 years later, there was a group of people who migrated and settled in the area of Ban Chomphu, Ban Mung, Wang Phrong, Sai Yoi. This area was also known as one of the terrorist lairs. DOI: 10.4236/jss.2021.93032 493 Open Journal of Social Sciences B. Watanadumrong, S. Chemsripong and monitoring the situation within the community. The important planted fruits in the area, which are longan, mango, Marian Plum, durian, giant sour tama- rind, bitter bean and rambutan, respectively. In the future they have plans to ex- pand the area for farming Marian Plums. The research objectives are to investi- gate the supply chain of Marian Plum and also the economic value of production in terms of benefits and costs analysis, how to generate income for the ridge farmers in short and long run which sustainability and wealthy production, pro- cessing and marketing. 2. Literature Reviews The study of Marian Plum value, using the case Study of Ban Bua Sawan com- munity enterprise to observe the Marian Plum in both the farming and market- ing phase. Sonklion (2013) studied the agricultural support for the farmers, who are involved with Marian Plum farming, in Nakhon Nayok Province, and to analyze the supportive factors and gather suggestions for further development in the area.