Decision Support System for Vegetable Farming According to Market Price Mechanism in Ratchaburi

Abstract

The purposes of the research were to 1) develop a decision support system for vegetable farming according to market price mechanism in Ratchaburi, 2) evaluate the system performance, and 3) measure the user satisfaction towards the system. The specific target group is divided into two groups, including, five experts in system development and thirty vegetable farmers near the Mae Klong river in Ratchaburi. The research tools are including a performance evaluation form and user satisfaction measurement form. The data analysis is performed by Mathematical mean and standard deviation.

The research findings show that 1) the decision support system for vegetable farming according to market price mechanism in Ratchaburi has two user groups, including, (1) system administrators managing the data of vegetables which are in the central market in Ratchaburi and (2) vegetable farmers referred to as general users. The system is divided into four subsystems, including, (1) vegetable detail, (2) vegetable price, (3) vegetable price comparison, and (4) vegetable harvest period. Every subsystem is designed to support user decision and presents the data in a form of graphics for better understanding. 2) The system performance evaluated by the experts is in the high level (  = 4.27, S.D. = 0.62), and 3) the user satisfaction from the specific target group is also in the high level (  = 4.15, S.D. = 0.57).