Draining Slowly?

From The Bangkok Post on April 22 (photo above from the Tatoom district market - April 30):

Life is slowly draining from the farms: Fewer young people want to plant rice any more.

It is a job that produces the staple food of more than 60 million Thais, but rice farming these days is increasingly being left to aging farmers like Boonma Kantasorn.

At the age of 57, Mr Boonma works on rice farms in a village in Nong Saeng district, just as he has done for the past four decades.

"Rice farmers here are older than before. The majority of them are in their 40s and beyond," he said.

Like most families in the area, his three grown-up children took advantage of educational opportunities their parents never had, and have now opted for jobs in Saraburi town and Bangkok.

"My eldest son, now 28, has worked at a factory in Bangkok since he finished high school."

His second child works for a bank, and the third is employed in a local copy service shop.

"I told my children to carry on with their jobs, because they can earn more than me. Here you cannot get a steady income."

The flow of young people from rural areas to towns and cities could eventually result in the loss of a new generation of farmers, said Rice Department director Prasert Gosalvitra.

"There is a growing national trend which is seeing more aging farmers and fewer younger ones," he said. "The new generation just doesn't want to do it."

This reflects a reality that, with many rice farmers amassing debt and seeking financial rescue from the government, the occupation is fast losing its appeal with younger generations.

The number of people working in the farm sector is declining across the board, according to the Office of Agriculture Economics (OAE).

In 2006, Thailand had about 25 million farmers, who accounted for 40% of the population. About 10 years ago, half of the country's population farmed, but last year the figure had dropped to 23.8 million.

If the trend continues the agency estimates the number is likely fall to 37% of the population by 2013. This could threaten the country's food-producing capacity.

Witoon Lianchamroon of BioThai Foundation, a non-government organisation campaigning for increased biodiversity, said the situation was worrying and the government must act to reverse the trend, otherwise investors will exploit the opportunity to implement industrial farming methods.

"In the next 30 years, there'll be a much higher demand for food than now," he said. Investors could then rent or buy land from farmers to invest in large-scale farming, agricultural processing plants and hiring local people.

"The state must not encourage such investment," Mr Witoon said.

Farmers nationwide are increasingly selling their land then renting it back to grow rice, Mr Prasert said. "In the central region about 60% of land formerly owned by farmers is now occupied by non-farmers," he said.

OAE statistics show the total area of farm land in 2006 was about 130 million rai. Of that, about 93 million rai was owned by farmers, and 25% of this was mortgaged.

Mr Prasert said it was critical rice farming be made a more secure and profitable occupation by finding ways to reduce production and logistics costs, increase productivity and improve irrigation.

There should be better welfare for farmers and more local cooperatives to strengthen their capacity, he said.

Mr Witoon said farmers should have better access to markets, more negotiating power with traders, and have guaranteed security in terms of income and improved livelihoods.

In an effort to "mark the beginnings of a new generation of farmers", the Education and Agriculture and Cooperatives ministries last year initiated a project in selected colleges to make agriculture more business-savvy.

But for Aekalak Boonma, 22, whose parents are farmers in Phayao, rice farming would not be his ideal job no matter how profitable it was.

"I wouldn't do it. It's a tiring, laborious job," said Mr Aekalak, who moved to Bangkok after finishing high school and currently works in a convenience store to put himself through college.

"Even if we can earn more from it, it's money we only get once or twice a year. At home, people my age have moved out to work somewhere else."

The crisis of conventional farming in Thailand lends itself to the viability of alternatives. More "business-savy" farming should mean small-scale, sustainable production for local markets - this is where gov't institutions can support farmers. This past week, the Ban Non Yang farmers' group recieved funding for a "Career Seedling" training for people returning home from Bangkok, young farmers or conventional farmers looking to transition. Farmer to farmer training in organic farming will help make agriculture a desirable career for the future of food in Thailand.

Paw Bunsong Matkhao on China

Here's a recent note written by AAN president Paw Bunsong Matkhao, after returning home from a trip to China with Focus on the Global South and other parts of our network:


What I've learned about Chinese Society.

Chinese society has changed faster than I thought. I thought China was a type of socialism, but I now see it’s also capitalist. Industry has developed and agricultural labor is currently moving towards working in industry. This is very similar to Thailand 30 years ago. You have Chinese farmers that think the problem of land limitation is a good thing. Farming means production for self-sufficiency, but if you’re able to find work elsewhere, you can earn a better income.

Once you have enough money to build a new home, your thinking begins to change. In this way, China is really entering the capitalist system within state controls. The space between rural and urban Chinese is wide. Pressure on the environment is great because of the expansion of industry. Water is polluted. There are impacts on the agricultural system, as the atmosphere is being poisoned. I got to see the agricultural system and it really worried me. If I were a farmer who ditched my land for industrial work like those in Thailand, it won't be long before I start to fall apart, because farmers are reliant on resources from outside, they are no longer self-reliant. The amount of seeds, chemicals, pesticides that a farmer must buy are all gradually increasing. They buy seeds every year because they can't save seeds - so what will farmers be left with in the long term?

There is a great chance for Thai farmers to destroy their soil and fall apart financially. Yet one good thing about China is that the state has worked to support farmers and control land grabs. They work to develop farmers' way of thinking and have insurance programs for food security, and production-focused careers. I’m not worried about China’s role as a competitor in the agriculture sector for the long term, because China is fully pursuing industrialization of their food system. The plan for the Chinese leaders is to develop a policy to become the world’s major food producer, growing domestically or internationally and exporting food, but this will take a long time.

As for the people's movement and the work of NGOs in China, it isn't yet clear or concrete, because of a lot of limitations. For example, in the structure of NGO leadership and work, NGOs are working to help the state. They don't think to work independently, as a movement for society. China is moving into a new type of socialism, with capitalism inside of the state system. It’s going to be the fuse of a time bomb’s that creates a new time of resistance from the people. Agriculture is China is much like Thailand 30 years ago, the only thing needed is to increase production, without thinking about the environment. There is labor migration, with the agriculture sector moving towards industry more and more - but maybe this is fitting - because farmers have very little land and have very little access to information about the impacts of free trade. For example, when I asked them about low prices for their crops, they answered, "it's because the economy isn't good."

Surin Organic Learning Center: Session 3

Farmers from Khorat, Suratthani and several districts in Surin joined SFS from April 6 to 9. Our members taught them about making several types of compost, rice seed saving techniques (including SRI planting), organic ducks, and organic pigs (which included another set of organic composts and animal feed). Beyond techniques, our members discussed the farmers' group-building process and the small-scale farmers movement for organic farming. This report will try to keep things brief, as much of the day-to-day details are very similar to those of Sessions 2 and 3.

The Khorat farmers’ group was coming from a unique place. Though most farmers in the northeast are considered small-scale (5 to 15 acres), the Khorat group represented a more central Thai approach to agriculture, growing rice in a mostly mechanized process and planting on large paddies (farmers owned between 25 and 85 acres). Yet they were genuinely interested in learning about organic techniques and trying to apply them on a large-scale. These types of farmers often view organic farming as a step backwards (technologically and development-wise), or are convinced that their productivity will suffer if they don’t use chemicals (as do small-scale farmers). It was refreshing and encouraging meeting a group of farmers that seek an alternative, especially with the support of the BAAC – much like the groups from Chaiyapum and Ubon Ratchatani during Session 2.

P’ Daeng, from Pi Mai district, Khorat province told the group on Day 2, “I’ve come here to see people with a way of life that is self-sufficient – my home is not self-sufficient, with mostly large-scale farmers. It’s a valuable experience, seeing farmers who are self-sufficient and growing diverse, organic crops.” Self-sufficiency was an important theme throughout the session, including for those groups from other villages and districts that sell vegetables at the Green Market, but came to train further in organic rice production and seed saving. This type of event can serve as both an introduction and a refresher.

Day 4 brought reflection from the farmer-students, as they had an opportunity to talk about the organic farmers they stayed with. P’ Wirawan, who is famous for her mushrooms, earns 4 to 5 thousand baht (up to $150) per week, but she told those who stayed with her that it’s taken 10 years to feel successful – it’s about hard work, commitment and freedom. P’ Jansee, who taught the farmers about SRI and rice seed saving, has a beautiful forest surrounding his house. The farmer-students recognized the value of planting trees and having such diversity around the home. It is an important part of sustainable agriculture (beyond planting rice). P’ Pakphum, another one of our educators, helped the group recognize that money isn’t the center of all things – health and nature are more valuable to a farmer. One person realized that organic farming is about learning a way of life; it is an opportunity to change one’s life.

Paw Samrit spoke about the endless cycle of pesticide and herbicide use: “there are 5,760 species of insects in our fields. We use pesticides and our vegetables are beautiful, but then we forget about the weeds...” Worms are essential: they break down waste and we use their waste as fertilizer.

P’ Bresong spoke about his neice who is now returning home after losing her job in Bangkok. She’s returning home as a last resort, but was a burden when in Bangkok and without any money to remit to her family. Her family’s land is an opportunity to return home to.

P’ Nok told the group, “you’ve finished college, now move on to grad school – keep learning in your fields!”

P’ Yae helped conclude: “There are a lot of excuses not to farm organically – it’s hard, don’t have family help, no time, ‘just give me a minute to start…’, my soil isn’t good, etc. But just start, a little bit, and if there’s some success, then take it further – it’s all up to you.”

That pretty much wraps up our Organic Learning Center for this season. Over the next few months, farmers will begin preparing their fields for the rice-planting season. With their new knowledge gained, we hope the farmers who joined our learning sessions will begin transitioning away from using chemicals – whether they have 200 rai of land or not. Below, the farmer-student group from Pi Mai district, Khorat province.

Green Manure in Tabthai

P' Bo tills under his winter mung bean crop in a paddy near the forest. Nitrogen-fixing crops like mung bean provide essential nutrients for organic soil. Paired with the leaves and microorganisms from the forest, this paddy will be ready for planting come the rainy season. Using rotational green manure crops like mung bean are an important part of sustainable agriculture here in Surin, as farmers can save seeds each season and lower the cost of fertilizer inputs like chicken manure or rice husks. Mung beans are also used to make tasty deserts and to grow bean sprouts, which are really good when stir-fried. We've also just uploaded a report on green manure crops onto the wiki.

Interview with P' Kovit

Wanted to post this recent interview by a fellow ENGAGE member with P' Kovit Boonjear. P' Kovit has been in the U.S. for more than 4 months now, living and exchanging with communities engaged with various efforts for community empowerment. His visit - the Exchange for Urban People's Movements - has been organized by ENGAGE and our allies in northeastern Thailand.

Interview with Thai Community Organizer Kovit Boonjear on squatter communities, housing rights, and community empowerment
- Katherine Foo

Please tell us about yourself and your background.
*

I was born in southern Thailand in Songkhla Province. My Mom was from Bangkok, and my Dad was from Hua Hin. They moved to Songkhla and had three girls and three boys. I am the fifth child.

My Dad worked as a waiter. He worked really hard, but he considered education to be really important for his children, so he sent all of us to school. At the end of the month, every employee received a salary, but my family would not because of the credit that they used during the month. In the end, they would have little money. My Mom was a housewife, but when we would go to school, she would go out to work as well. When I was 11 years old, I followed my Dad when he moved to Bangkok for work, but my Mom stayed in Songkhla.

I finished law school, but I found that the law had very little to with me. I thought it was more important to help people and work with people. When I finished school, I went back to the South to work with Muslim communities for six months. Then I moved to Isaan [northeastern Thailand] and worked with an international organization for 12 years. When I went to work, I found that I couldn’t change the policy of the government; I was only doing welfare work. When the government would stop giving out money, the situation would revert back to its initial state without improvement. I think when people initiate something by themselves, and they negotiate with the government, then I think they can make real change. But when we work for big organizations, we cannot really change anything.
*

What type of work do you do now?
*

I help organize squatter and "scavenger" communities related to housing rights and self-sustainable income generation. I work with these communities in the context of a national people’s organization called the Assembly of the Poor. I also coordinate the Khon Kaen Educational Initiative, which connects these urban communities in order to develop educational, professional and social opportunities for them. I promote an alternative to
conventional NGO-derived models of "self-help" and instead emphasize participatory education with input from students, families, teachers, government officials, and communities.

What are the main causes of homelessness in Thailand?
*

The reason for homelessness in Thailand is that the government only supports the industrial sector and not the agricultural sector. People sell their land for industrial purposes and need to move to town to get new jobs. This is a uniquely urban problem. The people in the rural areas still have land. When in the city, people go to the public land owned by the Railroad Authority of Thailand (RAT) and squat on that land. They find that to buy land in urban areas is very expensive, so they stay on RAT land.

They can’t buy that land because it belongs to the government, so they have to negotiate to rent the land. But it takes time to rent the land because the RAT prefers businesses to rent at a higher price. The community has to constantly negotiate with the RAT. It took 2 years for the communities in Khon Kaen to reach an agreement to rent the land. They also have to negotiate for fair loans and utility rates because squatter communities usually have to pay higher interest on loans and higher electricity rates.
*

What are the most effective methods that the squatters have used to improve their situation?
*

It’s most helpful for the homeless people to form a group, to develop into an organization, and to link together to become a network with other interest groups. Linking up issue by issue is not enough. The linking up of squatters with squatters is not enough. The linking up of squatters with the HIV/AIDS network or agricultural network is good because it lets them form a long-term process of change. We work together. When we work together to become a group in the long-term, we can make progress.

It helps to create something to hold the group in place in the short term in order to help the group to grow in the long term. For example, the people can create a savings group or a community bank for community projects. We try to develop the group into an organization, and then we link together with other organizations. That is where power comes from that can change things. People who have lost their homes can use this process.

In Thailand, there are no shelters. In Bangkok, the squatter network pushes the government welfare department to build shelters. But this is organized by the people. The government now has already created a budget for squatter settlements to establish themselves in Bangkok. Now it’s easier to rent on RAT land because we’ve been fighting them for a long time.

In the squatter settlements, the people create a community police. For hard problems, like if something really violent happens, they call the city police. But otherwise, they try to take care of their problems by themselves.
*

How do the squatter communities work with the Assembly of the Poor (Thai: Samacha Con Jon)?
*

In the Assembly of the Poor, different issues organize into different groups, for example: squatters, people living with HIV/AIDS, farmers promoting alternative agriculture, etc. In the AOP, the different focus groups form into a network across the country.

"Samacha" means that everyone comes together. When we come together with people of different issues, we call it "Samacha," like a conference. "Con Jon" means poor people. AOP translates into the meeting together about issues pertaining to poor people. I think this is a good model. If one group within the network wants to protest to change a government policy, everyone in the network has to support them and protest with them. They are strong. They can protest for 99 days in front of the Government House. It’s really hard, but they can do it. However, now I think they are weak because of Thaksin’s [former Prime Minister] policies—they were good for beating down the AOP.
*

What are the ways that government policies affect poor people in Thailand?
*

I think most policies from the government are the biggest impediment to helping squatter communities become stronger. Most people who write the policy are from the upper class. Some policy supports the poor people, but it supports them as welfare policies. It doesn’t encourage poor people to stand up for themselves.

Most education changes children’s ideas. Most children go to school, and they don’t go back to the community where they came from. Education makes them individualistic to think about themselves only and not their communities and society. Also, education usually doesn’t include a local curriculum. If you learn about local history and local issues, you can become proud of who you are and where you’re from. Isaan has a rich history of growing jasmine rice and many regional cultural traditions that the students don’t learn about in school. For example, the school curriculum studies the Chaopraya River. Even if the students are in Isaan, they are studying the river in Central Thailand. Why not study the Mekong River, so that we can protect it?

All the people tell younger people that they need to study hard in order to be smart, to become the boss, to walk proudly. They don’t tell them to go to school to become a good person. They say, you can reach a high position in a company and become "hi-so" [slang for high society in Thai]. This is the way of thinking.
*

Have you learned anything in the United States that may help the work you do in Thailand?
*

I am not sure about that yet. But I have learned that the people here are not the same as the government. In the past, I didn’t separate the government and the people [of the United States]. But the people find themselves in the same situations as the people in Thailand. They are similarly oppressed by the policies of consumerism and capitalism. But they are the same as people in Thailand and around the world. I think I learned this.

Another point is that before I used to not understand racial issues in the United States. But after coming here, I am more sympathetic to racial issues. Minorities are citizens the same as white people, but I think there’s a double standard for them. I understand this much better now.

Another thing I see clearly is that U.S. Americans use a lot of resources. They are about four percent of the world population, but they use 25 percent of the world’s resources. When I see a skyscraper, I don’t just look at the form, but I see the details. I think about the amount of resources and water that it uses. One day of water use in one American skyscraper could use the equivalent of one village or a farmer to irrigate all of his crops.

Organics in India

Just came across this video on globalpost - it seems like the organic farming and organic market movement is pretty similar in India to here in Thailand. Anyone want to share their thoughts?

Agribusiness and the economic crisis in Asia

An article in today's New York Times focuses on the role of family as a social safety net for the unemployed during the current and past economic crises. The Times interviewed a 20 year-old worker who was laid off last month in Bangkok,

Now, with the world in recession and growth fizzling even in once fast-growing emerging economies, “only the food factories are still looking for workers.”

“The chicken factory said they need a lot of people,” he said as he registered at a government job-search center last month. “I’m waiting for their call.”

I wonder who's chicken factory that might be? After a bland and broad comparison of Asian countries' responses to different economic and social crises, the article concludes,

Thailand is one of the few countries in Southeast Asia to offer unemployment benefits. But it is not much of a safety net, said Mr. Wittaya, the former camera-factory worker who is now having to consider a career in cutting up chickens or baking bread.

In another option, his grandmother owns rice fields in northeastern Thailand and as a last resort he might return. But there is a problem: He’s never farmed before. “I don’t know how,” he said.

It's disheartening to read about this Isaan person's "last resort" to return to the rice fields, but it's a result of significant changes in rural Thailand's systems of production and agricultural livelihoods. Given the debt and burdens of farming, there is little incentive for the new generation to keep farming. Further, CP chicken factories are symbolic of the consolidation of farmers' labor and resources (in place of diverse, regionalized foodsheds) as farmers are brought into binding contracts that control farm-gate prices while feed and fertilizer are provided by CP at prices set by the corporation.

The 1997 Asian financial crisis meant a major increase in "underemployed" people in northeastern Thailand, and for our network, the years following the crisis were an opportunity to create new alternatives for struggling small-scale farming families. A number of Rice Fund members returned to Surin in 1997 and have never looked back, pursuing self-sufficiency through sustainable agriculture. Though most rural youth view urban jobs in factories as more respectable professions - less labor intensive and more potential to make good money - returning home can be an opportunity to change one's life and learn "how" to farm (again).

In other news...

There's a new video/slide show about the CP's "Farm to Table" process. It consists of trucking feed to farms (where did the feed come from?), trucking raw products to mills, and then trucking packaged foods to CP "fresh marts." It raises an interesting thought - does this "transparency" in industrial agriculture make consumers any more content with Thailand's food system? We're used to not knowing where exactly or how exactly our chicken, fish or pork is raised, so by showing us the CAFOs and grain refineries, agribusiness is being somewhat forthright. Yet behind this greenwash is on-going exploitation of small-scale farmers and the environment in Thailand and abroad.

Despite promoting this system as a sustainable "Kitchen of the World," we still have an opportunity for us to propose an alternative "Farm to Green Market" approach, where producers and consumers can meet each other half way:

To sum this ramble up, Isaan's youth, if (or, as) they return home from Bangkok are presented with the opportunity to pursue farming as a career. Though they are unlikely to consider organic farming, contract farming for companies like CP is becoming increasingly the option of choice. Our network can work against this process only in small steps: opening community learning centers, instructing on sustainable techniques, building local, alternative markets, and campaigning against the exploitation of small farmers.

Monday, SFS will wrap up it's series of Organic Learning Centers with session 3, and I hear that there will be a number of young people in the group. We're committed to making the session a basis for their transition to organic farming and building their own sustainable livelihoods. Let's hope our efforts help allow other farmers to be a little more likely to consider organic farming as well.

Sketches of Isaan

Just uploaded some sketches by a friend - really beautiful work that depicts the people of Isaan in a unique way.

Lunch

Paw Ota cast his net and brought in a few pounds of fish. We threw the small ones on the grill with a little salt and ate them with chili sauce. Then, we took turmeric, lemongrass, garlic, kaffir lime leaves, chili and galangal, and made a soup with the catfish.