More than 500 officials responsible for development and management of Thai farmer co-operatives met in Pattaya to draft a unified plan to bolster the agricultural groups.
Prinya Phengsombut, director of the Co-operative Technology Transfer and Development Office, presided over the Sept. 7 meeting in Jomtien.
Prinya Phengsombut, director of the Co-operative Technology Transfer and Development Office, presides over the meeting in Jomtien.
Four Thai government offices – Co-operative Business Development, Co-operative Support and Development, Funds Management, and Co-operative Technology Transfer and Development – have jurisdiction over the co-ops. While they are all supposedly dedicated to backing farmers and updating them on new developments, they all operate separately, said Somchai Channarongkul, director-general of the Co-operatives Department.
“The main purpose of the seminar is the discussion between the four major agencies within the department to proceed in the same direction since each department has specific responsibilities and one agency working alone cannot be successful,” Somchai said. “Therefore, it is necessary for other agencies to cooperate for the drafted strategies to work. I hope that during the next year and the years after, these personnel will be able to build a network that is complete and stronger in the cooperatives system.”
