การวิจัยเชิงปฏิบัติการอย่างมีส่วนร่วมในการสร้างการประกอบการเกษตรอินทรีย์ในเมืองบนฐานเศรษฐกิจหมุนเวียนเพื่อพัฒนาให้เป็นย่านนวัตกรรมสีเขียวของกรุงเทพและปริมณฑล 5 พื้นที่

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Abstract

A Participatory Action Research on Building Circular Urban Farming (CUF) Businesses (based on Circular Economy Principle) towards a Development of a “Greenovative Community in Five Areas in Bangkok and its Municipality aims to 1) Build Circular Urban Organic Farm Businesses in at least five areas in Bangkok and its Municipality, 2) build the circular urban farming business network by applying to create shared-value from upcycling their food waste and optimizing their space into green and edible farming business and measuring its triple bottom line profits; namely economy, society and the environment; and 3) conclude and synthesize the knowledge set on urban organic farming based on the circular economy. 40 selected participants, including ten employees of five participating companies and 30 urban farming interested individual participants selected 260 enrolled candidates in the 8-month Circular Urban Farming Business Incubation Program, attended the ten-week online CUF theory online course and the ten-week CUF on-site active learnings at the prototype he Wastgetable model farm. After these five months of the active learning process. Each has applied that knowledge to practice in the learners area. During the four-month intervention of the researchers and five mentors to each farm after each participant start each farming, the researchers and the mentors employed data collection methods from observation questionnaire use in-depth interviews in collecting the resulting production and business data. After analyzing the findings of the data collection, the researcher team conducted three lessons learned and a reflection process and summarized and shared its conclusion among the participants in the Circular Urban Farming Business Fair on 2-3 April 2022 and published the proceeding in the final report and the Journey to Circular Urban Farming Handbook. The research project revealed that a total of 19 farms on a total area of 2,602 square meters with food waste management from the origin was built, 148,252 kgs of food waste were composted and upcycled to 75,220 kgs of organic fertilizer, and approximately 6,208 kgs of vegetables, with the estimation of 931,190 baht (average of 150 baht/kg) revenue if they were sold, were grown during January to April 2022. These results socially benefited directly to the reduction of vegetable costs among the 19 CUF families, relatives, and friends. With respect environmental impact of the CUF activities in 4 months from January to April 2022, 94,317 kgCO2eq were calculated by using an organic farming GHG Reduction formula developed by Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organization (TGO) from upcycle food waste to compost into such fertilizers. These results were also translated into triple bottom line profits in three impacts; namely economics—household expense reduction, society-action to create the circular urban farming ecosystem and Circular Urban Farming Network, and environment—food waste compost, to arise from this project. CUF Network also brought together the learning results of organizing “the 1st Episode of CUF Fair: Loving Compost from Food Waste and Vegetable Growing” at the Bangkok Cultural Art Center on March 29 to April 10, 2022, causing the CUF network to learn about marketing and presenting products throughout the supply chain to customers. In addition, a collection of knowledge from the research project development has been synthesized into a book, “The Journey to Circular Urban Farming Business,” with content from the hands-on learning process of the Circular Urban Farming Network. There are 3 levels of recommendations from this research. At the CUF entrepreneurial level of the Circular Urban farming, CUF entrepreneurs should 1) sort out as much as production materials within their neighborhood in order to uphold circular economy principal in optimizing any unused resources and avoiding transportation or carbon footprint of the materials from other provinces, and 2) since Circular Urban Farming is new and the traditional agriculture context might not fit well with the urban setting, they should learn by doing and experimenting by using local materials and continue their self-development in applying the traditional agriculture knowledge to grume their new applied knowledge and confidence and 3) They should share their knowledge more often under the Circular Urban Farming Network. At the community level, the state should promote and provide spaces to create creative green careers and a new future for urban residents by promoting composting food waste within each community. Lastly at the national level, with respect to circular urban farming as the cornerstone of the urban food system, food waste composting helps reduce food losses and food waste throughout the supply chain; the government should consider any new scheme of land tax measures as an incentive for circular urban farming businesses. Keywords: urban organic farming based on the circular economy, circular urban farming, Participatory action research, social and environment entrepreneurship, Circular Urban Farming Network