IoT Technology and Digital Upskilling Framework for Farmers in the Northern Rural Area of Thailand

Abstract

One-third of Thailand’s workers are in agriculture, but the country’s agricultural GDP is still less than 10% of its total GDP. Most Thai farmers are smallholders with limited land and low incomes. To improve the agricultural GDP and the economic situation of smallholder farmers, the Thai Government has been trying for decades to encourage and support smallholder farmers to adopt modern farming methods and smart farming equipment, including digital technologies. However, the improvement is still sluggish due to a lack of an effective approach to delivering essential digital knowledge and skills, as well as investment support for smart farming equipment. These have hindered smallholder farmers’ digital farming skill progress. To address this issue, the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Research and Development Fund for Public Interest has funded a project to develop the Digital Farmer Development Framework. This framework provides essential digital knowledge, training, coaching, and fundamental resources to upgrade smallholder digital-farming literacy to become digital farmers using problem- or project-based learning approaches and collaborative blended learning theories. Bloom’s taxonomy is used as a guideline for evaluating the framework’s effectiveness. Implementation of the Digital Farmer Development Framework has shown that farmers can significantly improve their digital farming literacy and are capable of using digital technology to improve farm management and productivity. Based on Bloom classification guidelines, 100% of the farms in the project can apply digital skills and utilize fundamental smart farming equipment as well as able to evaluate and analyze data from IoT devices. Moreover, 66% can create their own smart-system solution from fundamental smart farming tools for their farm. The project has also created a digital farmer community that shares knowledge and resources with others.