Thursday morning brought 40 cold, yet encouragingly excited farmers and researchers from Patalung Province, Southern Thailand to the
sala in Donlengthai village. This week has been the coldest all winter and certainly a tough time to come for a group of people used to 80 degree weather all year-round. As members of the Alternative Agriculture Network (AAN), they came to learn and exchange about rice seed-saving and planting techniques with farmers from the Tamor Natural Agriculture Group, who are also AAN members. Over the past two seasons, SFS members in Tamor have
gained a lot of experience using SRI techniques in growing rice to preserve specific varieties and expand others for sale.
The first session featured some instruction from P Jansee on SRI basics (using our new whiteboard!). After a coffee break, we moved things outside and into the sunshine, exchanging about each group's experiences with seed-saving and organic certification processes. Providing information for the Patalung farmers' group about organic certification was an important part of the exchange, because when farmers can clearly and confidently explain such a time consuming and involved process to other farmers, knowledge and confidence can move quickly into action. The Patalung farmers' group is already pursuing organic techniques, so the next step is to approach certification.
P' Yae and P' Pakphum (in the above photo) also had a lot of great information and thoughts to share with the group. One thing that P' Yae said really stood out: "saving rice seeds is important because they are community property; they are farmers' property. This issue is about Intellectual Property Rights and creating a base of information and records of our work and knowledge. Companies have a right to Intellectual Property, but owning this information about rice seed varieties can help if companies try to claim it." The threat that agro-industrial seed companies like Monsanto pose to small farmers is a real one. Given a
double net income on seeds in the last quarter, Monsanto will continue to look for markets to control and other seed companies will follow in competition. If farmers are unable to protect the genetic diversity they've created in their own fields, who's to say that their fields won't become another extension of the mono-crop (increasingly GM) "free market" of agro-industry? Given this context, it is increasingly important for small-scale farmers' groups like the members of SFS to have the ability to grow and save local varieties of rice seeds. Farmers in the AAN will continue to exchange knowledge and seeds in order to create a strong alternative to the corporate-controlled system that is expanding throughout Thailand.
Thursday morning brought 40 cold, yet encouragingly excited farmers and researchers from Patalung Province, Southern Thailand to the sala in Donlengthai village. This week has been the coldest all winter and certainly a tough time to come for a group of people used to 80 degree weather all year-round. As members of the Alternative Agriculture Network (AAN), they came to learn and exchange about rice seed-saving and planting techniques with farmers from the Tamor Natural Agriculture Group, who are also AAN members. Over the past two seasons, SFS members in Tamor have gained a lot of experience using SRI techniques in growing rice to preserve specific varieties and expand others for sale.
The first session featured some instruction from P Jansee on SRI basics (using our new whiteboard!). After a coffee break, we moved things outside and into the sunshine, exchanging about each group's experiences with seed-saving and organic certification processes. Providing information for the Patalung farmers' group about organic certification was an important part of the exchange, because when farmers can clearly and confidently explain such a time consuming and involved process to other farmers, knowledge and confidence can move quickly into action. The Patalung farmers' group is already pursuing organic techniques, so the next step is to approach certification.
P' Yae and P' Pakphum (in the above photo) also had a lot of great information and thoughts to share with the group. One thing that P' Yae said really stood out: "saving rice seeds is important because they are community property; they are farmers' property. This issue is about Intellectual Property Rights and creating a base of information and records of our work and knowledge. Companies have a right to Intellectual Property, but owning this information about rice seed varieties can help if companies try to claim it." The threat that agro-industrial seed companies like Monsanto pose to small farmers is a real one. Given a double net income on seeds in the last quarter, Monsanto will continue to look for markets to control and other seed companies will follow in competition. If farmers are unable to protect the genetic diversity they've created in their own fields, who's to say that their fields won't become another extension of the mono-crop (increasingly GM) "free market" of agro-industry? Given this context, it is increasingly important for small-scale farmers' groups like the members of SFS to have the ability to grow and save local varieties of rice seeds. Farmers in the AAN will continue to exchange knowledge and seeds in order to create a strong alternative to the corporate-controlled system that is expanding throughout Thailand.
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