The field day was aimed at sharing and disseminating newly developed
knowledge to other farmers from the community as well as other
stakeholders engaged in rice production systems in the Central
Thailand.
Participants included 120 farmers from Pathumthani and Suphanburi
provinces; 12 farmers from local partners of Coastal Resources
Institute (CORIN), Nakhon Srithammarat;10 students from Agriculture
faculty of King Mongkut
Institute of Technology along with three persons from Thailand Environment
Institute, which is a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
appointed Network of Research Institutes for Sustainable Development
(NETRES) partner.
The season-long participatory action research and associated Farmers
Field School (FFS) was supported by the rice research team of
Agricultural Systems and Engineering (ASE) Field of Study, School of
Environment Resources and Development (SERD) of AIT under the overall
framework of a competitive grant project titled “Community preparedness
for climate change and increased water use efficiency for rice
cultivation using principles of System of Rice Intensificiation (SRI)
in Central Thailand.” This project was funded under the UNEP’s APFED
Showcase Project 2008.
The project assumes special significance in the wake of the ongoing
dry-spell in the Thailand where 14,000 villages in 36 provinces were
severally affected. The DoAE has undertaken the project
implementation under the “Royal Initiative”. In addition, climate
change variability is further likely to aggravate the situation along
with the pressing issues of deteriorating soil fertility and pest and
diseases stresses.
The field experiments using Farmers’ Field School (FFS) platform were
aimed to adapt the principles of SRI to develop socio-economically
compatible technology to enhance the productivity of rice using less
water. The experiments also prepare farmers against the negative
externalities of climate change. Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
trainers of DoAE imparted additional training to enhance practical
understanding on biodiversity conservation to minimize the insect-pest
damage to the crop.
Among the five tested treatments, the SRI and adapted SRI-Parachute
plots performed better than others. In these replicated plots, rice
yield of 8.25 tons per hectare were harvested in both SRI and
SRI-Parachute compared to 5-6 tons per hectare in the farmer’s practice
plot. The SRI and SRI-Parachute treatments received less seed, less
water and no pesticide; whereas the farmer’s practice plot used local
practices involving higher seed rate, more water and excessive use of
pesticides. One of the most interesting features of FFS was the
adaptation of the existing parachute method of rice planting utilizing
the principles of SRI.
The project reveals that production efficiency needs to be optimized
in changing water and climate scenario in order to increase the "crop
per drop" given the importance of rice production in Asia in general,
and in Thailand in particular. The project results reconfirm the
existence of an opportunity to enhance crop yields, improve water use
efficiency, and develop ‘climate proofed’ rice management practices
using SRI principles. More details on the project can be obtained from
Dr. Abha Mishra and Dr. Prabhat Kumar of AIT.
Project farmers, experts, trainers and
students from King Mongkut Institute of Technology at village Ban
Nongri in Ratchaburi province of Thailand.