Making mixed soil appropriate for commercial planting helps young farmers gain knowledge and skills for a future in agriculture following the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

Developing knowledge and skills in an agricultural career for young farmers by making mixed soil ready for commercial planting is the comprehensive learning management for developing a future agricultural career after the end of Covid-19 pandemic. This began with production, quality development, and marketing. It was the coordination with professional farmers and entrepreneurs in the community. According to this study, mixed soil ready for commercial planting was prepared by using local raw materials with 4 formulas. It was found that the best soil potting formula was the second formula. The group of young farmers had brought the results of the study to develop further to add value by making packing and distributing though a variety of channels. Finding also showed that learning achievement of the young farmers increased with a statistical significance level at 0.05. There was an assessment of skills in making mixed soil ready for commercial planting, value adding, and marketing which was found at a high level ( =4.15, 3.85 and 3.56, respectively); Besides, the following were found at a highest level: the sample group was satisfied with product selling via online market ( =4.56); comprehensive learning could promote learning and create skills/experience for developing a future career ( =4.36); adoption of technology and online media could encourage learning ( =4.32). In addition, the entrepreneurs agreed that creating a network of online selling directly to farmers and the general public would be a channel for selling agricultural inputs in the future. It was consistent with the era of digital marketing and they were satisfied with making mixed soil ready for commercial planting at a highest level ( =4.73). There was more than one-half of them (56.92%) wish to develop it to be a supplementary career in the future most ( =4.56).