Author : Suchin Pleehajinda

Summary : This study investigated the effectiveness of the second four-year plan of the Agricultural Cooperative Restructuring Program (1984-87) on the performance of Bankhai Agricultural Cooperative Ltd. The main objective of the program was to improve the managerial effeciency of the agricultural cooperatives which were financially weak and were suffering from administrative problems, with the aim of making them more economically viable and capable of providing better service to their members as well as improving the members' income and standard of living. The results indicated that the cooperative's performance after it joined the program was better than before the program. The performance of the credit business improve tremendously. In addition, the members' annual net income and well-being also moderately improved. The main problems of the cooperative and the Cooperative Promotion Department have to solve are: 1) lack of funds to expand its business; 2) limited area of business; 3) loan repayment by members is still low; 4) high amount of interest receivable from members; 5) irresponsibility of some employees and non performance of their duties; 6) lack of cooperation and loyalty of some members; and 7) instability of farm product prices. Nevertheless, the program concept is a good one. It could help to improve the performance of some of the agricultural cooperatives. Therefore, the program should be extended to cover all agricultural cooperatives in Thailand, including those that are not financially weak and are not suffering from administrative problems.