Abstract:
The purposes of this descriptive research were to study context, physical environment, need of capability development, knowledge, problems, coffee planters obstacles, and investigate a capability development guideline of conservation coffee planters for self-reliance in Nan highland areas, Manee Preug Village 2, Ngob Sub-District, Thung Chang District, Nan Province. The target population was 44 coffee planters in the village. The data were collected from an observation, an interview and a test. The percentage, mean, standard deviation and descriptive synthesis were parameters used for statistical analysis. The results reveal that the environment and ecosystem in the area are suitable to grow Arabica coffee. Most of the coffee planters are Lua who are self-reliant by using local technology in planting and processing coffee as a local product. However, an increase of the need of capability development is at a high level, especially in marketing knowledge and skill which is ranked at the top followed by seedling, caring and pruning to gain more knowledge about coffee planting as well as preparing land for planting and harvesting. Furthermore, the obstacles for coffee planters are preparing land and taking care of coffee trees due to the steep area. In addition, the guideline for capability development of the conservation coffee planters for self-reliance is to focus on producing good quality coffee and enough quantity of coffee to meet the demand.