Approach to Overcome the Workforce Shortage of the Northern Thai Tea Plantation
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This research investigates the problem of workforce shortage of tea plantations in the Northern region of Thailand. It is the first study to explore the issue. There are two research objectives; fristly, to study the workforce shortage situation in tea plantations in the Northern Thailand, and secondly, to study the approaches to overcome the workforce shortage in these tea plantations. This study was conducted by using the in-depth interviews on eight Assam-growing tea plantations. The results showed that half of the sample tea plantations were experiencing a workforce shortage. This is due to the changing population structure and the changing work values of the new generation who perceive agriculture as hard work. Tea plantations facing workforce shortages have different approaches to solving the problem, including the use of harvesting machinery; developing tea production methods to sell tea at a higher price; the use of job rotation in human resource management; and the employment of foreign workers and ethnic minorities.
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