Special blocks seem to work very well, actually. Thank you.
On further exploration, there seems to be a problem.
As you can see in the example below, \end{table} is wrongly placed. tablenotes and \end{threeparttable} should come before \end{table} and not after. Since special blocks are wrapping around the table, this is creating a problem.
My org syntax;
#+begin_threeparttable #+NAME: gharsondi-yield #+CAPTION: Average yields of selected crops in Gharsondi, Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh and India, 2007-08 (kilograms per acre)
#+RESULTS: gharsondi-yield-in | Crop | Gharsondi | Gwalior | Madhya Pradesh | India | |-----------+-----------+---------+----------------+-------| | Soybean | nil | 689 | 442 | 500 |
| Paddy | 1553 | 866 | 569 | 1337 | | Urad | 53 | 142 | 142 | 192 | | Sesame | 101 | 127 | 153 | 170 | | Wheat | 824 | 664 | 652 | 1134 |
| Chick pea | 462 | 445 | 288 | 308 | | Rapeseed | 501 | 280 | 375 | 405 | #+begin_tablenotes \item [] \footnotesize{Note: Yield of rice Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh and
India were converted to paddy equivalents.} \item [] \footnotesize{Source: Data for Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh and India taken from the website Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India}
#+end_tablenotes #+end_threeparttable
When exported, this creates the following in the .tex file.
\begin{threeparttable} \begin{table}[htb] \caption{\label{gharsondi-yield}Average yields of selected crops in Gharsondi, Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh and India, 2007-08 (kilograms per acre)}
\centering \begin{tabular}{lrrrr} Crop & Gharsondi & Gwalior & Madhya Pradesh & India\\ \hline Soybean & nil & 689 & 442 & 500\\ Paddy & 1553 & 866 & 569 & 1337\\
Urad & 53 & 142 & 142 & 192\\ Sesame & 101 & 127 & 153 & 170\\ Wheat & 824 & 664 & 652 & 1134\\ Chick pea & 462 & 445 & 288 & 308\\ Rapeseed & 501 & 280 & 375 & 405\\
\end{tabular} \end{table} \begin{tablenotes} \item [] \footnotesize\{Note: Yield of rice Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh and India were converted to paddy equivalents.\} \item [] \footnotesize\{Source: Data for Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh and
India taken from the website Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India\} \end{tablenotes} \end{threeparttable}