How climate-smart techniques are giving Thailand’s farms a boost

Rain machines, water canals, and laser-leveling are some of the methods being adopted in Thailand in an effort to ensure the country has a more sustainable agricultural supply chain amid the global food crisis. Triggered by climate change, conflict, and the COVID-19 pandemic, food agencies are warning that as many as 828 million people are now food insecure and that over 10 times more people are living in famine-like conditions compared to five years ago. In the Asia-Pacific region, an additional 7 million people became acutely food insecure in 2022, totaling 69.1 million people. In Thailand, the 2022 Global Hunger Index puts the level of hunger at “moderate,” with almost 10% of the population considered undernourished. Sridhar Dharmapuri, a food safety and nutrition officer at the Food and Agriculture Organization, said last year that Thailand has “rich natural resources” and therefore has an opportunity to export more food, as well as transform its current food system to be more sustainable and “produce more food using fewer natural resources.” Typically, however, the country has engaged in techniques that have a detrimental environmental impact — such as land burning, the use of agrochemicals, and the destruction of forests — in order to meet market demand. Extreme weather impact Thailand’s major exports include rice, canned tuna, canned pineapple, cassava, and sugar but such crops are vulnerable to storms, floods, and rising temperatures. The country was ranked as the ninth most affected by extreme weather on average between 2000 and 2019 by the Global Climate Risk Index 2021, and in April recorded its highest-ever temperature at 45.4 degrees Celsius. In the countryside near Chiang Mai, 43-year-old farmer Atchara Chumphuka described how erratic weather affects her family farm’s rice yields. “It's very hard for us to guess when it's going to be cooler to plant. … Sometimes it's too moist [or] too hot, the heat affects everything,” she told Devex, adding that floods are also a problem. “[Where] the land is lower, the ground just soaks the water so easily and it won't go anywhere so the quality of the rice that I get is bad. I want to make the best rice seed, but [without] controlling the water, I can't do [that]. I can't be the best.” Fertilizer could help the plants withstand various conditions, Chumphuka said, but this is expensive and something her family tries not to use too much of. Instead, she’s turning, along with others, to climate-smart and more environmentally friendly farming techniques. Climate-smart farming Two years ago, Chumphuka, with the help of the local government, installed a canal-style irrigation system across her 8 rai (12,800 square meters) farm and leveled off the land instead of continuing with the traditional terraced paddy field. The staff used a process called laser land leveling whereby tractors, with a laser-guided drag bucket, move the soil. Manipulating the land in this way prevents rainwater from pooling in the lower level and destroying crops. “When the flooding comes, I have no problem because the water comes in and goes out easily,” Chumphuka said. Research shows that laser land leveling can speed up the watering of crops and increase yields while also saving electricity, which equates to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The Thai government has also recommended splitting small farms using a 30:30:30:10 formula that sees 30% of land used as a reservoir to create a yearlong water supply, 30% for rice fields, 30% for vegetables and other crops, and 10% for residence and livestock areas. Chumphuka’s change in approach to land and water is considered unusual among the farmers around her — especially the older generation. “I had to talk my dad into changing the whole dynamic of planting rice,” she said. “He didn't go to the farm for two months because he was so mad.” But she added that after seeing the quality of his rice and income improve alongside the sustainability factor, he’s since told others who now want to replicate the efforts. Chumphuka has also successfully encouraged her father to use more machines, such as drones for fertilizer distribution, and combine harvesters for planting instead of farm workers, who she said are increasingly hard to come by as fewer young people consider jobs in agriculture. Agroecology Elsewhere in the country, aside from technology, agroecological approaches have also come into use to try and improve sustainability in the food system. Agroecology, as defined by the Soil Association, is “the application of ecological concepts and principals in farming” that mitigate climate change by “reducing emissions, recycling resources and prioritising local supply chains.” “It emphasizes the importance of biodiversity, ecosystem services, and the use of local knowledge to promote sustainable and resilient food production,” said Wyn Ellis, executive director of the Sustainable Rice Platform, which promotes resource efficiency and sustainability in the global rice sector. The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report referenced agroecology as a solution to adapting and mitigating the impact of climate change. An example of it in practice is the use of earthworm casts, also known as earthworm manure, on farms across Thailand as organic fertilizer. Other examples include the use of tall vetiver grass in Phetchaburi province, which prevents soil erosion and promotes water retention. Meanwhile, a country-wide artificial rain project involves releasing environmentally friendly chemicals into the air to trigger condensation so that farmers have water in times of drought. Punpun, an organic farm and seed center in northern Thailand, collects and propagates rare and indigenous seeds before distributing them to organic farmers to “bring back our edible diversity,” a spokesperson told Devex by email. Higher yields and income Certain methods of agroecology have the power to generate more income for farmers as well as create resilience, said Pierre Ferrand, agriculture officer at the FAO’s Asia-Pacific regional office. “At the moment, farming doesn't bring [enough] income to farmers and the poorest part of the population are usually farming communities. This has to be changed and agroecology can play a key role in reengaging the youth in agriculture by providing better income, but also more meaningful work.” The Sustainable Rice Platform has adopted alternate wetting and drying techniques in rice fields — which reduces water usage and methane emissions, and they also promote stress-tolerant rice varieties. “By adopting these varieties, farmers can minimize yield losses and maintain productivity even under changing climate conditions,” Ellis said. Another yield-boosting technique has been introduced as part of a project by the World Wildlife Fund in northern Thailand, which is the use of perennial crops — those that don’t need to be replanted annually, as well as mixed cropping, meaning the growth of multiple crops on the same land at the same time. This reduces the risk of crop failure, improves soil fertility, and potentially boosts income. Asia, compared to Latin America and Africa, Ferrand said, has been slower to adopt agroecology, partly because its promotion by social movements, farmers organizations and governments is much more recent. But it has the potential to tackle the climate, food, and healthy nutrition crises, as long as the government continues to support it, he said. “There is a growing narrative that because of the current crisis, there won't be enough food to feed the planet … which is not entirely true because the planet has never produced as much food as now,” Ferrand added. “It's not only a problem of quantity, but a problem of quality and access.” Thailand’s experiments with climate-smart methods could help with both. Update, June 7, 2023: This article has been updated to clarify Ferrand's comments concerning the current food crisis and the pace of Asia’s adoption of agroecology. Visit Food Secured — a series that explores how to save the food system and where experts share groundbreaking solutions for a sustainable and resilient future. This is an editorially independent piece produced as part of our Food Secured series, which is funded by partners. 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