Freedom Farmers Rediscover Food Security

As the morning mist hovers over a worn dirt road, farmer Phakphum Inpaen makes his 6am journey to the awaiting rice fields. Fifteen minutes later, the Surin native kicks off his sandals and steps into his flooded paddy, the mud and manure squishing between his bare toes. After 30 minutes of ploughing, his sister, Samriang, arrives with bundles of jasmine rice plants. The pair throw them into the water and begin transplanting.

The siblings return home after several hours of working in the fields and prepare an organic feast of jasmine rice, chicken and green beans. All of the food placed on the straw mats comes from Phakphum's land, which he has developed into a sustainable organic farm.

"Farming is total freedom," he said. "We are free from any orders. We do it all by ourselves - that's freedom."

However, the 39-year-old said he did not always feel freedom as a farmer. Like others, he was once attracted to the promise of higher yields from chemical fertilisers. Yet, the cost of maintaining such yields came at a price: Soil quality dropped, requiring more and more fertiliser.

Furthermore, the use of pesticides and herbicides affected people's health. When Phakphum sprayed his beans, chemicals would soak his hair. Two years after beginning the practice, he developed chronic headaches and stomach pains.

"I wasn't thinking about my health," Phakphum said. "All I was thinking about was how I could get the best yield."

In 1999, he switched to organic farming because of health concerns. Shortly afterwards his pains stopped.

He transitioned into organic farming with the help of Surin Farmer Support (SFS). The NGO taught him how to use renewable natural resources instead of chemicals. They gave him bean seeds to use as green manure to improve soil quality.

Phakphum's sister, Samriang, carries Jasmine rice plants to the field for transplanting.

His fellow villagers also saw the benefits of going organic. Rice from 20 of the 68 households in Donlaeng Tai is certified by Organic Agriculture Certification of Thailand. Another 26 have the less strict Surin Province Organic Certification.

Having relied on chemicals for years, some chemical farmers do not understand the reasons for organic farming.

"People from other villages say we are stupid, but we are stupid with good health," said Samruat Yaemchu, community health volunteer for Donlaeng Tai.

In addition to improved health, organic farmers are seeing reduced debt.

"On average each one of us before doing organic farming had 60,000 baht of debt. When we became organic farmers, I didn't think debt would be reduced in any way," said Donlaeng Tai headman Naichusak Saijaem.

However, when farmers stopped purchasing costly fertilisers and chemicals, input costs decreased and their debt was reduced in two to three years. Naichusak said if farmers appropriately apply organic farming, they will eventually have no debt.

The work of villagers and NGOs to spread organic farming in Surin gained attention from the national government. In 2001, Surin was chosen as the pilot project for organic farming in Thailand.

"People have confidence that Surin rice is safe. We believe that the life of the Surin farmer will improve as well," said outgoing Surin Governor Kasemsak Sanpote.

The biggest challenge facing the provincial government is changing farmers' minds. Less than 20 percent of Surin farmers have adopted this method of farming.

"The first step is to provide knowledge of techniques," said Nijit Chuwa, Surin agriculture promotion officer.

Along with Jasmine rice, Phakphum grows beans, bananas, jackfruit and vegetables using integrated farming techniques. Therefore, he can feed his family with mostly homegrown goods.

"What we can't consume, we sell," he said.

Organic farmers are able to sell their jasmine rice domestically and internationally through a self-owned cooperative. Nine provincial sub-districts, including the village of Donlaeng Tai, operate the Rice Fund Surin-Organic Agriculture Cooperative, also known as the Rice Fund. After four years of selling Fair Trade Certified rice to Europe, these farmers have recently expanded their market to the US with the help of SFS and the Educational Network for Global and Grassroots Exchange (Engage), a US-based NGO.

Fair Trade rice farmers are guaranteed a living wage, have fair labour conditions and manage their own cooperatives.

"Through Fair Trade, the customers learn the way of life of the small-scale farmer and know that [their purchase] doesn't destroy the environment," Phakphum said. "The customers help to make the way of life of the farmers better."

However, the pending free trade agreement (FTA) between the US and Thailand may threaten these rice farmers' livelihoods. The US annually spends $1.3 billion (53.3 billion baht) in subsidies on a rice crop that costs $ 1.8 billion (73.8 billion baht) to grow, according to Oxfam. These subsidies allow US farmers to sell their product on the world market at low prices. Depressed market prices have already affected some Thai farmers. After the Thailand-China FTA, many small-scale garlic and onion growers could not compete with cheap Chinese produce.

In an effort to preserve sustainable farming, Phakphum travelled to the US along with another rice farmer and an NGO member last week. The Thai farmers will speak about the injustices of the global rice trade and promote trade alternatives like Fair Trade.

"I don't farm for the money. I farm for food security," Phakphum said. "It's not only about food; it's our livelihood, our culture and our beliefs."

By Bangkok Post On 26 Sep 2005
http://www.ftawatch.org/cgi-bin/content/newse/show.pl?0067