Goodbye, September!

Hard to believe its already October 4! The month of September has flown by and I've barely had time to post anything here. P Nok's visa application was approved this week - now all we have to do is buy the plane ticket. To see some of the CIEE students' (who visited Sept. 10-15) words about their experiences here in Surin earlier this month, check out their blog.

Here are a some updates to wrap-up the month:

For our organization and cooperative, maintaining organic standards is essential. On the 23rd, Rice Fund's inspection committee got together to review reports from the latest round of field inspections. To maintain a fair inspection, the team of 9 inspectors travel to villages other than their own to carry out their work. Their reports are then reviewed by the committee for certification standards. All cooperative members are inspected annually. Almost half of our members are NOP certified and all members are IFOAM certified.

At this committee meeting, of the 109 members inspected in this round, 9 members failed for using chemicals. This means that these farmers will lose their certification and won't be able to sell their rice with the cooperative this year. While this is a disappointment for the committee, their use of chemicals comes from a number of reasons. This season's unpredictable weather can make production especially risky for members and some, in desperation, resorted to using chemical fertilizers to ensure some higher yields. For others, the drive to earn income is stronger than the conviction to farm organically, or maybe they aren't quite convinced by organic methods. Many of these farmers are in the transition phase of year 2 or 3, while their soil is still being restored.
For the farmers who form the inspection committee, its a long day away from their fields filled with paper work at the mill. After inspecting the stacks of files were over, the committee raised questions about ways to support the farmers in situations that might lead them to use chemicals. For organic farmers, once their soil is good, even in drought, their rice won't die on them. When the rains come, rice will come up quickly.


On Weds., the 1st, P Yae and I headed up to Tatoom district to meet with the Nong Bua farmers' group. For this years' SRI/Seed Saving program, they are planting 13 varieties of rice. Farmers got together and headed out into their groups' paddy to take down information on height, the size of plant leaves, and other characteristics of the rice plants.

While the farmers in Tatoom typically eat sticky rice, and their SRI paddy was mostly different varieties of sticky rice, they are also growing Basmati, a grain native to the Indian subcontinent. Above, some of the grains of a growing Basmati plant. Unfortunately, the birds love to eat it.
After going over the paddy statistics, members at down to talk about their groups' work. It is important for these farmers to make rice seeds their own, hold them in their hands and out of the control of companies or property rights. Preserving their local agroecology's genetics is a major goal for their group.