Thailand: Going organic - Ban Mae Jo in Chiang Mai intends to be Thailand's first chemical-free village

Source: bangkokpost.com

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Ban Mae Jo’s irrigation system runs from its own water
reservoir of 19 million square metres.

Thongbai Leknamnarong, a committee member of the Ban Mae Jo Micro Hydro Project, is enthusiastic and always ready to encourage her village members to implement chemical-free or organic farming.

Every day she cooks food with the fruits and vegetables grown at her homestay resort using organic farming practices.

She was advised by Jon Jandai, a prominent advocate of organic farming, to start an organic farm several years ago, and the project has now become a demonstration site for people in the village.

Mr Jon is foremost a farmer, but he is also a widely renowned "earthen builder" in Thailand. Hailing from Yasothon province, he has been farming all his life. He also began building earthen houses on his family farm in 1997.

In 2002, he started hosting workshops on building earthen structures, travelling the country and teaching farmers, village groups and non-governmental organisations, and is credited with creating what is now a widespread earthen building movement in Thailand. He co-founded Pun Pun in July 2003 and is most interested in preserving our heritage in seeds.

Over the next few years, Ban Mae Jo in Chiang Mai's Mae Tang district is stepping up its plan become Thailand's first village free from chemical fertiliser and pesticides by using organic fertiliser and herbal pesticide and repellents.

Some 21 of the 111 families in the village have been participating in the programme since 2009, growing organic vegetables and fruits at their homes. In the future, they also plan to turn over their farmland and rice fields to organic farming.

Monthol Wasuwanich, a project manager with the Energy for Environment (E for E) Foundation, said the project was initiated a year ago when village leaders visited the micro-hydropower plant at Ban Mae Kampong in Chiang Mai where the eco-tourism business is booming and successfully developed and managed a micro-hydroplant.

Ban Mae Jo has its own water reservoir of 19 million square metres that was developed by His Majesty the King in 1989 for irrigation purposes. When energy prices began rising several years ago, the village became interested in having its own energy resources by developing a micro-hydropower plant at its water reservoir.

But due to a lack of funds, the E for E Foundation and Thaioil Plc, Thailand's largest oil refinery, provided a 3.7-million-baht grant for the project. In July 2010, village members voted to build a power plant and a month later approved the management with the village's cooperative model.

Mr Jon, who moved from Yasothon nine years ago, has inspired the villagers to grow crops on dry and barren land using organic farming methods. He has played a vital role in drawing the interest of local villagers in organic farming and abandoning the use of chemicals. The cooperatives model is expected to begin operation in September.

The power generator is expected to produce 160,800 kilowatt-hours annually, and the plant will be managed by the village cooperative in which all houses are shareholders. Electricity sales are expected to bring in 650,000 baht per year.

Ms Thongbai said profits from the power plant will be used to finance the village's organic farming development project as well as preserving the forest area near the village.

"We'll develop eco-tourism in the forest area in the future as another source of revenue for the village," she said.

In his capacity as adviser to the project, Mr Jon said convincing local communities to switch from chemical-based to organic farming is a difficult task. It can only happen when people see the results for themselves. Even though the income from organic farming is initially lower than farming with chemicals, the former has very low production costs, so profits are much higher.

"Most people want to make quick money, so they use chemicals, fertilisers and pesticides to accelerate the crops' growth despite the fact that this is costly and hardly makes a profit," he said.

"Worse still, chemical-based farming creates debt in addition to damaging Mother Nature due to the chemical residue in the soil."

Mr Jon added that it is a pity most people still ignore medicinal herbs that can be used to repel insects and pests despite the benefit that herbs are toxin-free and leave no chemical residue.


These are projects Ban Mae Jo villagers implemented to
become Thailand’s first organic farming village.

Tip: OrganicPortal India - Organic Agriculture

OrganicPortal NewsRoom

23.01.2012

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