In Thailand, rice is the staple food and one of the country’s biggest exports. However, rice farmers have seen falling returns from agro-chemical farming and almost 70 per cent of them are in debt. Estimates suggest that about 30 per cent of the rice-farming population is malnourished. In order to address these issues, one of the farmingsolutions.org partners, Oxfam UK, is working with groups of Thai farmers on their sustainable livelihoods programme.

One such partner group in Thailand is the Khao Kwan Foundation (KKF). This group focuses on developing know-how about sustainable agriculture, providing technical support for farmers to convert to organic farming, and disseminating knowledge and news. Several of its programmes are helping low-income farmers to take advantage of the growing demand for organic produce, stressing the higher prices that they attract and the many other benefits that come from organic farming.

Years of abuse
Common complaints among Thai farmers who used agrochemicals were skin problems, respiratory disease, and severe headaches. Furthermore, as the KKF founder and manager Decha Siribhat explains, there is a threefold level of exploitation of farmers who are subjected to such capital-intensive systems.

"First they are powerless over matters of pricing and distribution of those inputs. Secondly, they can't negotiate with the middlemen over the prices of their own products. And thirdly, the market dictates the prices of consumer items they use in daily life."

Mr Decha, a graduate in agricultural science, predicts an imminent Second Green Revolution, brought about by advanced techniques in genetic engineering. “The know-how, concentrated in the hands of a few multinational companies in developed countries, will only exacerbate low-income farmers' lack of control over their traditional way of life,” he warns.

Benefits and hurdles
While Thai rice farmers recognise the benefits of converting to organic farming, they still face obstacles in Thailand’s export-oriented economy. To make this transition more smooth, KKF gives direct technical support to enable farmers to convert to organic farming, and helps them train others to do likewise. KKF is a founding member of the Alternative Agriculture Network, and through the network knowledge and information is spread to its 10,000 members.

Farmers who have converted to organic farming say that they particularly value the better health that their families are now enjoying and the reduction in medical expenses that this has brought. They are also pleased to see fish, frogs, crabs, insects, and plants returning to the fields, and to be able to supplement their families’ diet with these.

As they farm without expensive chemicals, their production costs have fallen and they are showing an increase in profit from their crop. After several harvests without using chemicals, it is estimated that the profit from their crop increases by more than 70 per cent. The farmers are also diversifying their farming activities as their income increases, with some farmers developing fishponds or raising pigs or poultry.

Farmers in non-irrigated farming areas in the North-East have been able to achieve organic farming status. They receive a guaranteed higher price for their crops by selling through the Earthnet Foundation. However, this is not possible in irrigated farming areas because the standards for organic certification cannot be met.

Saving indigenous seeds - a case study "When I first came to work here seven years ago, I didn't care much for these indigenous seeds," said Suksan Kantri, a food crops researcher for KKF. Time and exposure to different patterns of farming, however, taught him to appreciate the vital relationship between humans and the crops they grow. "To change even one crop entails a shift in the whole way of life," he said. In the past, grain harvests were frequently scattered on shelves and a large proportion ended as fodder for mice or was rotted by the heat. But today a green fridge in the corner of the room at KKF HQ contains samples of thousands of indigenous seeds collected from around the country by KKF staff. A cursory glance at it would hardly do justice to its significance to Thailand's future. Packed in tiny plastic bags and stored in boxes are the seeds of rare vegetables and fruits that you just don't come across on most supermarket shelves. Among them are ruby red jasmine rice seeds and seeds that the KKF staff call their "black" counterparts. Both are natural hybrids, discovered at an experimental farm a few kilometres away. The ancient refrigerator may not look much, but its donation proved to be a signficant boost to KKF’s mission to promote alternative agriculture in the Central plains, the rice belt of Thailand. Safeguarding sustainability The collection of local seeds remains one of KKF's top missions. Yields from some of these seeds may be low by some agricultural standards, but the researchers believe they contain the key to sustainability. Generally, these indigenous species are more resistant to pests and disease than crop strains born in research labs. And the advantage of diversifying local crops so as to protect an area against being ravaged by potential plagues is obvious. Unfortunately, during the Green Revolution in the 1970s, some local crops ceased to be cultivated- some of them forever. Mr Suksan estimates that Thailand used to have more than 3,500 different strains of rice, but, following the widespread drive by international and national agricultural agencies to promote high yield strains fewer than 10 strains are now cultivated. It is not known what has happened to the rest of the country's indigenous rice strains. The so-called high yield species now widely cultivated by and large require considerable capital investments in the form of fertilisers, chemical pesticides, and large-scale irrigation systems. So KKF’s seed-bank is one small step towards breaking the vicious toxic cycle. Since its inception a decade ago, KKF has compiled and conducted 'research' in such an interactive manner that often it is the farmers themselves who test the productivity of the grains. "On our fieldtrips, we ask locals for a spoonful of food grains," Mr Suksan said. "After we replicate enough of them in our own nurseries, or do cross-breeding, we give the seeds to the farmers in our network and periodically collect information on their growth rates and yields. "Actually, the villagers turn out to be more efficient than us, as they have more time, experience, and personal interest in the findings." The Thai government supports the development of organic agriculture because of the increasing demand for organic products in the export market. However, a further shift in government agricultural policy and consumer demands in Thailand is needed if farmers across the country are to reap the full benefits of converting to non-chemical farming.

Your input into IAASTD
The first IAASTD Global Design Team meeting will take place in Bangkok Thailand between January 30 and February 3 2005. It will be attended by agricultural experts from around the world. Delegates will start to set the parameters for this United Nations sponsored assessment of agricultural science and technology. Farmingsolutions.org is keen to stress to the IAASTD Design Teams the important message that this success story and many like it replicated throughout Asia everyday, represent. If you are interested in using farmingsolutions.org to contribute your suggestions about how this process can be achieved globally or if you would like to receive our regular IAASTD newsletter keeping you up to date with progress, please write to IAASTD@farmingsolutions.org

Source:
Oxfam UK - Programme Impact Report, 2004
Khao Kwan Foundation (KKF)
21 Nane Kaew Rd Soi21, Muang District
Suphanburi 72000
tel: 66 (0) 35 500 803
email daycha@loxinfo.co.th








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