Smart SEP Farmers: Digital Platform to Enhance Farmer Life Sustainability According to Sufficiency Economy Philosophy

Abstract

This research creates a network of "Smart SEP Farmers" on the digital platform SEPAction to elevate the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy (SEP) of target farmers from the level of “Action” to “Attain” to “Achieved.” 312 farmers in 9 provinces in the northern region of Thailand have joined this project. A farmer can evaluate themselves to see their weakness, so they can plan to improve themselves following the Farmer’s Success Level guild provided to make an effective farmers community. After using this application, we found that the target farmers potential are increased by 31.29% which come from 169 farmers can improving from a qualify farmer to the farmer in the Act level who know how to make a successful work in their careers, together with 118 farmers who can improving from Act level to Attain level know what is good or bad along their career path to meet self sufficiency, and together with 4 farmers who can improving from Attain level to Achieved level who can improve their product by themselves. More than that, we found that the farmers reduced agricultural expenses by 21.44% and can reduce debts up to 19.74%. We also showed the evidence to improve well-being and solve poverty among farmers genuinely. Results discussion, cooperation guidelines among the government sector, academic agencies, and farmers, and future improvement strategies are also stated to make sustainable smart farming.