Abstract:
The purposes of this research were to 1) study the operation of agricultural institutes rice mills, 2) analyze the operational efficiency of agricultural institutes rice mills, and 3) analyze the factors affecting the operational efficiency of agricultural institutes rice mills in Chachoengsao province. Data were collected during August 2018 to May 2019 by using structured interviews from 13 rice mills in Chachoengsao province consisting of community enterprises' rice mills, farmer groups' rice mills, and agricultural cooperatives rice mills. The data were then analyzed by using descriptive statistics, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), and Tobit Regression Model. The findings revealed that 76.92% of agricultural institutes rice mills were community enterprises' rice mills which had an average maximum production capacity of machines at 359.23 kilogram of paddy per hour. The community enterprises' rice mills provided paddy rice processing services for both member and non-member farmers, and bought paddy from member and non-member farmers to process into rice. Also, the community enterprises' rice mills sold rice in both non-packaging and packaging by using their own brands by themselves. Farmer groups' rice mills were 15.39% of agricultural institutes rice mills which had an average maximum production
capacity of machines at 225 kilogram of paddy per hour. Farmer groups' rice mills provided paddy rice processing services for both member and non-member farmers and bought paddy from member and non-member farmers to process into rice. In addition, farmer groups' rice mills sold rice in non-packaging by themselves. Finally, 7.69% of agricultural institutes rice mills were agricultural cooperatives rice mills, which exhibited a maximum production capacity of a machine at 550 kilogram of paddy per hour which. Agricultural cooperatives rice mills provided paddy rice processing services for member and non-member farmers only. Regarding operational efficiency, the results exposed that agricultural institutes rice mills in Chachoengsao province exhibited average technical efficiency (TE) at 0.912 with fully operational efficiency (TE = 1) totaling 2 rice mills, namely rice mill no. 7 and rice mill no. 10, which were all community enterprises' rice mills. There were 11 non-fully operational efficiency rice mills (TE < 1) showing the TE values between 0.787 - 0.980, namely rice mill no. 1, rice mill no. 2, rice mill no. 3, rice mill no. 4, rice mill no. 5, rice mill no. 6, rice mill no. 8, rice mill no. 9, rice mill no. 11, rice mill no. 12, and rice mill no. 13, which comprised of 8 community enterprises' rice mills, 2 farmer groups' rice mills and 1 agricultural cooperatives rice mill. In order to improve the operational efficiency, agricultural institutes rice mills should reduce the amount of inputs in accordance with to the DEA recommendations. The essential production factors that need to be
reduced included labor costs in operations and machine operation time. In regard to the factors affecting the operational efficiency of agricultural institutes rice mills, the 2 variables that affected the operational efficiency of agricultural institutes rice mills in Chachoengsao province with statistical significance at 0.05 were study period in system of the rice mill supervisors and the maximum production capacity of machines. The finding suggested that relevant government agencies should exchange of knowledge between fully operational efficiency rice mills with non-fully operational efficiency rice mills by organizing a study visit counterparts in the area to apply knowledge to their own rice mills for better operational efficiency.