WASTE MANAGEMENT FOR JAPANESE PUMPKIN SUPPLY CHAIN WITH CIRCULAR ECONOMY CONCEPT: A CASE STUDY OF AGRICULTURE IN HIGHLAND AREAS

This paper studied the waste management of Japanese pumpkin covering cultivation at fields to processing for selling pumpkin fruits. It aimed to study the amount of Agricultural wastes (AWs) and methods of wastes management. This study was the quantitative research using the data from in-depth interviews with the farmers’ sample group and 20 stakeholders in June, July and November 2019. The wastes from these processes including young leaves, unripe pumpkins, second-rate pumpkins, vines, pumpkin shells and seeds were more than 1,600 tons per year by planting 324,000 pumpkin trees per year in Mae Tang district, Chiang Mai province. The result suggested that the wastes that could be processed easily shall be managed by small-scale farmers or community. For example, pumpkin vines could be processed to Biochar. Meanwhile, Community enterprise could deal with wastes that required high investment and technology like seeds process to pumpkin seed oil. Our recommendations were not only to reduce agricultural wastes, but also create economic value to small-scale farmers in the Japanese pumpkins value chain. Besides, farmers should manage the waste in an appropriate way so that it will not create negative effects to the environment such as burning the infected Japanese pumpkin plants in order to prevent damage of the other plants in the future.