Farmers of Hokkaido (Japan)

The farmers
There are over 100 000 of them on Hokkaido (the northernmost of Japan’s 4 main islands) but I haven’t met any! We have seen so many farms and so much farmed land though… but no human beings around! It’s the same here than in other countries where ‘modern’ agriculture is practiced: not much workforce is required anymore to cultivate the land. Moreover, the fact that it rained most of the time didn’t really help for meeting farmers! So I’m just going to share some facts I have read about farmers and agriculture on Hokkaido, and describe the way I have experienced them during the 3 weeks I cycled on Hokkaido.

Agriculture plays a dominant role in Hokkaido’s economy. The island has nearly 25% of Japan’s total cultivated land and contributes 12.5% of the total agricultural output of Japan. However, the number of farmers represent only 4.5% of the global number of farmers in Japan. That means that there are relatively few farmers and that they run their businesses on a large scale, full-time basis; over 70% are considered ‘business farmers’ (20% for the rest of Japan) and 65% of farmers are under the age of 65 (only 35% in the rest of Japan.) Hokkaido farmers also make more money from farming than their colleagues from other parts of Japan. I read that Hokkaido is the only part of Japan where the value of agricultural production has not declined. Also, the number of new entrants into agriculture has been relatively stable for the past decade (between 600 and 700.)

The farms

A big farm in the middle of nowhere

One of the smaller, ‘poorer’ farms

A dairy farm

A barn full of cows (in only very few cases they are let out)

When I began to see farms in the plains of Hokkaido, I was overwhelmed! For the first time in a very long time, there were again the big, modern farms which are a common sight in Western Europe… actually no, with their overall structure and shape of their buildings, the Hokkaido farms reminded more of farms I have seen in the Northeast of the US. Anyway, they are usually big properties in the middle of nowhere, with huge barns, sheds, silos, lots of machinery around… simply put, they look like proper farms, which I found rarely the case in less developed countries where basically every house could potentially be a farm! The numbers confirm that the average farm on Hokkaido is big: 23.4 ha of cultivated area per farming household, whereas the Japanese average is only 1.6 ha.

However, I could witness that there are clearly two types of farms (and therefore also of farmers and of agriculture) on Hokkaido: The big, modern and (probably) profitable ones; and the smaller, older ones – often with buildings made out of wood – that look like they could need a serious investment. For me it’s quite clear that many of the latter won’t be there anymore in only a few years’ time – even if I read that abandoned farmlands in Hokkaido is smaller compared to other parts of Japan.

The farmland

Corn growing near (still active) Mt Komagatake

Winters on Hokkaido are long and bitterly cold with loads of snow – not ideal for farming. On the other hand, Hokkaido is blessed with regular precipitations, pure air, and very fertile soils (many volcanos around!); I found that the earth looks extremely dark – even black sometimes. This makes up for excellent agricultural conditions during the milder months in various parts of the island. I also learnt that great night/day temperature differences – as is the case on Hokkaido – is beneficial for several crops (potatoes, melons, asparagus…)

The products

Potatoes… planted neatly with super dooper machinery!

Beautiful potatoes growing fast (no pests or weed whatsoever!)

Using every ray of sun to grow fast

It’s asparagus season!

Milk cows… feeling at home!

Ostrich farm

Over half of the Hokkaido farmers are livestock farmers (cows and some poultry). Therefore milk and other dairy products, as well as beef, are essential farm products. Crops for which Hokkaido is the largest – or nearly the largest – producer in Japan include wheat, potatoes, sugarbeet, onions, adzuki beans, kidney beans, pumpkins, sweet corn… and rice. I found the latter fact – and the sight of rice paddies throughout Hokkaido – a bit puzzling because I wasn’t aware that rice could grow well under high latitudes and quite harsh climatic conditions. However, I read that rice farmers have adapted well to the climate  and are using early-maturing cold-tolerant varieties, good-quality older seedlings for early transplanting, deep-water irrigation to protect crops from low night temperature and windbreak nets. I also witnessed that vegetables like tomatoes (in the glasshouse) and fruits like melons, strawberries, apples are being grown.

 

Farmers of Hubei (China)

A farmer harvesting tea in western Hubei

We’ve spent quite some time in Hubei, in Central China; I found this province particularly interesting from an agriculture perspective because so many different kinds of crops are being grown there. Hubei is sliced with rivers (including the mighty Yangtze) and dotted with lakes; it’s mainly lush and fertile. But its western part is very hilly – even mountainous in places. We’ve been to both parts of Hubei and it was interesting to observe the differences in crops and agriculture. However, the farmers are all the same in one perspective: they are friendly, but they are astonished to see us and are not very keen to communicate with 2 ‘loaowei’ (white people) who don’t speak any Mandarin!

In Hubei I have finally come across some of the big fields whose produces are going to feed the many hungry Chinese mouths! So far in China I had only seen rather small plots, farmed very traditionally. But in fertile Hubei, there are endless fields of winter wheat and barley (to be harvested soon), oilseed rape (currently being harvested) and – to a lesser extent – rice (has been (re)planted recently). We also saw vineyards, soybean, orange and peach trees. Agriculture is mechanized to a certain extent, however I didn’t see any really big tractor or harvester. For example the ongoing harvest of oil seed rape requires a lot of human labor. Given the high number of agricultural product retailers (selling crop protection products, seeds, fertilizer, machines…) in the small cities, a lot of inputs must be used. I found that in these big, more ‘modern’ agricultural areas, people seem better off; the houses are bigger, the towns look a bit fancier, and there are more pick-up trucks.

In the hilly/mountainous areas of the west, the dominant culture is tea. Starting at an altitude of ca. 700 m and up to 2000 m, we have observed many tea plantations. Whereas the bigger (but I found them still relatively small) plantations are owned by ‘companies’ employing many workers, the many small plots seem to belong to individual farmers who are cultivating them along with some other crops; sometimes we have seen rows of tea bushes growing at the steepest and most remote of locations. We have also observed how the tea is being processed (into green tea – by far the main type of tea drunk by the Chinese) in small plants or in people’s garages.

We have passed an area advertised as ‘the worldwide origin of kiwi fruit’ located in the south-west of Hubei, roughly at the height where the tea plantations begin. Kiwi plantations (they look like a kind of vine) where indeed plentiful and the plants were about to flourish.

Most of the other crops we’ve seen growing in the hills (rice, corn, potatoes, cabbage…) can be associated with subsistence farming – farmers grow them for their own needs and may just sell the little that’s left on the nearby market. It was amazing to see how every little square meter of relatively flat land (sometimes on man-made terraces) is used for growing something – be it right next to the road. This is something we have noticed over and over again: in hilly and mountainous areas, arable soil is incredibly precious.

It really surprised me that farmers in Hubei (like in the other Chinese provinces I have passed) do not have much cattle; I have only seen a few cows and goats, and no sheep. I guess that this is because the Chinese consume very little dairy products. However, chickens and ducks are omnipresent, and there are many pigs too.

Kiwi and tea – a surprising mix seen very often

One of the larger tea plantations

‘Cleaning’ the tea leaves

Traditional Hubei farms with potato crops in the foreground

As soon as there is more space, the fields are getting larger

Small vegetable gardens everywhere

Rice being replanted (in the ‘hills’ – very traditionnally)

Cabbage, a key vegetable in Hubei

Wheat field

Vineyards

Oil seed rape harvest in the middle of Wuhan!

The rice farmers of Longji (China)

A Yao lady – used to be a rice farmer, now she is selling handicraft to tourists

The terraces as seen from our hotel room in the village of Touantuzhai

The ‘Longji Rice Terraces’ is the name of an area high up in the hills of Northern Guanxi. Today it is a very popular tourist destination thanks to the beautiful steep rice terraces glistening with reflections when full of water (in May). It’s also home to a few villages where two ethnic minorities – the Zhuang and the Yao – live and follow (less and less!) their interesting customs.

We spent two days in this area. I was very impressed by the work of the people who built these amazing terraces, and those who are still maintaining and farming them today in an incredible effort. I would like to write something about the topic, in particular since I missed reporting about my trip to Sapa, in Vietnam, where the Hmong and Dao (that’s how the Yao are called in Vietnam) people are farming similarly impressive rice terraces.

Very hard work for little output
People started building the Longji terraces over 700 years ago in this very hilly region – because they needed some flat arable land to grow rice in order to eat. An amazing piece of farm engineering, these terraces! They rise to up to over 1000 m of altitude, in certain places I counted nearly 80 (very narrow) terraces without interruption from the top to the bottom of a hill. The terraces are very steep and there is a constant risk of landslide; every year a lot of work goes into repairing and consolidating them. Farmers put in place an irrigation system made out of bamboo aqueducts, diverting water from rivers and letting it flow down their terraces. Rains are quite abundant during the growing season, but I heard that some years drought can be a problem.

The way the people are farming rice has basically remained the same until now. In spring the farmers begin with the preparations for the next growing season: they plough the fields (either just by man’s force; if they can afford it, using an ox or a horse; today mostly by ‘tiller’, see below), get rid of the weeds, fix/consolidate the terraces. In May it’s time to replant the rice seedlings on the main field. Harvest takes place at mid-end September. Growing rice in this way on all these small terraces entirely manually is incredibly hard work… for very little output! During centuries the Zhuang and Yao people around here were basically HUNGRY (mainly during the winter time) because the rice they grew simply wasn’t enough to feed them. During communist time things even worsened, in particular during the ‘Great Leap Forward’ period when total agricultural collectivization was introduced, leading to a great famine during which millions of Chinese died (some sources say 20 mio., others up to 40…)

I read that even in the early 90’s the farmers of the Longji area were incredibly poor. Rice yields were very low (1,1 t/ha); the vegetables and other crops (corn, oil seed rape, taro) they grew – at the very top of the rice terraces – weren’t much to supplement their meager rice diet. The only way for them to earn a bit of money was to cut wood and sell it.

Tourism has improved livelihood
Things started changing in the mid-90’s when a photographer discovered the beauty of the rice terraces and shared it with the world; tourism picked up, providing an additional source of income to more and more local people. The area has changed a lot in only a few decades: now there are hotels everywhere and many more are being built; a cable car is leading to the top of the mountain; a big road is planned – attracting ever more tourists. If these developments sound dreadful to us (western) tourists, the locals seem to be very happy about them. Their life has already improved so much more thanks to tourism, and they want more! Most of them managed to replace their old house (thankfully the new houses must be built in a traditional way); also, most locals don’t farm rice anymore but make a (better) living from an (easier) tourism-related job: they work in the hotel business, sell souvenirs, carry the bags of tourists (or the tourists themselves!) or provide guiding services. 

Farming the rice terraces today
A few technical advances have made it a bit easier for the farmers: they now mostly plow with a ‘motorized hand-hold tiller’ = ‘motoculteur’ in French (though this looks as tiring for the farmer holding the machine than guiding an ox!); they aren’t bear foot anymore but wear plastic boots when working in the fields (and aren’t bitten by snakes or catch nasty diseases from the water in the paddies); they use some chemicals to protect their crops; and maybe most importantly, they now use rice hybrids which are better adapted to the altitude and provide a much better yield than old varieties.

Anyhow, the work in the terraces remains very HARD and you can’t really blame the locals to try to get away from it if they can. But of course the terraces still have to be farmed – that’s the reason why the tourists are coming! Therefore many people now hire farmers from outside the valley to take care of their fields. Moreover the local Tourism Board introduced some ‘rules’, which are often ‘agricultural aberrations’ like: Harvest should take place after the Independence day in October (because so many Chinese tourists visit at that time and want to see the rice still growing), the terraces should be flooded as early as possible (the Chinese tourists want to take photos of the terraces WITH the reflections in the water…) Farmers were also requested to grow another crop like oil seed rape during the winter season to make the fields look prettier, but they refused refused! Farmers need the winter season to do work outside the fields and to rest!

Heroes anyway!
Ohoh, could it be that we are witnessing the beginning of a ‘Disneylandification’ of agriculture at the Longji terraces?! Will be interesting to follow the developments in the area. I can only hope that it won’t get out of hand, and that the beauty and authenticity of the scenery will be kept – and that the locals will never totally succumb to the attraction of easy money. Anyhow, the hard work of the farmers working in these terraces should be recognized. In the past and still today, they are heroes!

Typical old Yao houses in the village of Dazhai

It’s true that the terraces look prettier when flooded (will be the case everywhere in the area at the end of May)

 

A sugar cane farmer in Guanxi (China)

I don’t know much about him – communication is particularly difficult here in China and he is very shy. However, I have seen hundreds of farmers like him during the 3 days I cycled from the Vietnamese border to Nanning, the capital of Guanxi. I would like to describe ‘him’ (= a typical such farmer – could also be a ‘her’) and his work – and make some assumptions.

You are one of the 20 million people working in the sugar cane agriculture and production in Guangxi [as much as 60% of China’s sugar production comes from that province.] You may be farming your own small plot of cane (often together with your family) or you may be hired as a worker on a bigger farmer’s field. In any case, you work very hard! Currently it’s harvest time and you spend the whole day in the field, from early morning until it gets dark. Currently your work consists of cutting the stem a few centimeters above the ground, choping off the main leaves, making a bundle with several cane stems and carrying them to the ox cart. [I have tried to carry such a bundle and it is incredibly heavy!] When the ox cart is full, you drive it to the main road and discharge the bundles on the road side. A big truck will come and get them later to bring them to the sugar cane mill.

Once you’re done with the harvest, you have to prepare the soil for the next growing cycle (in this area they practice annual harvests): burning the roots and leaves left, ploughing the field (if the plot is small, most likely simply with your ox and a wooden plough) and then planting the sugar cane cuttings (either short pieces of ca. 20 cm or whole stems.) Then you’ll probably use some kind of fertilizer and maybe some pesticides to protect your crops as they grow. [I have seen many farmers walking around with a small spraying machine and mixing stinking liquids near the road – with no protection whatsoever.] Sugar cane needs a lot of water but I’m not quite sure how you manage irrigation. I know that water – or rather water use efficiency – IS a problem for sugar cane farmers around here, since Guangxi suffers from droughts and flooding, which damage cane harvests and decrease productivity.

But water management is not your only problem. You are probably more concerned by the continuous decrease in sugar price. This has a direct impact on what you earn for your work and it’s getting harder and harder for you to make a living. For sure, you live in difficult conditions. For a few years you probably have had a proper house to live in [in all the villages I have passed I could observe how the last small traditional houses made out of red bricks are being replaced by grey concrete blocks], but your village looks so poor, dirty and messy! It doesn’t have much more to offer than a few very basic shops and small eateries. I wonder what you think when you go to Nanning, the provincial capital (if that ever happens,) and see the wealth around there: all these shopping malls, these big cars, these expensive restaurants… Basically, all these things you’ll never be able to afford! And what does your son think?! I’m sure that he wants to live the same life than the young people in Nanning and doesn’t want to help you out on the sugar cane field anymore… So what I really wonder about is – when I observe you working so hard in the field: for how long will these huge discrepancies in China – between rich and poor, urban and rural life, old and young – still persist? When will China take care of the over 150 million Chinese – probably including many of the sugar cane farmers of Guanxi – living on less than 1.25 USD per day? What about making sure these farmers get some tractors instead of building another luxury shopping complex??

For some basic information about the crop sugar cane, read my blog post about sugar cane written in Thailand 

A typical sight in Southern Guanxi: People harvesting sugar cane

Vũ Thi Nhan (Vietnam)

THANK YOU VERY MUCH to DANG VAN HUNG, rice breeder at the Syngenta R&D station in Nam Dinh, for making this interview possible and providing so much additional information about rice growing in Vietnam.

Name: Vũ Thi Nhan
Age: 64
Residence: Cao Lông, Nam Dinh province (Red River delta)
Family: Married, 3 children
Type and size of farming activity: Rice (9.4 sào =0.28ha)
Work force: Herself and her husband
Why her: She is one of the farmers who help out on the fields of the Syngenta R&D station

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You only farm a very small plot – are you a typical smallholder rice farmer of Northern Vietnam?
Yes, I think that I’m a very typical rice farmer of Northern Vietnam. Most families here own small plots and grow rice mainly for their own consumption, often having an addition source of income. In our case, the rice we farm is enough to feed the larger family; if there is some left, I sell it on the market. My husband used to work in the army and we now get some additional money from his pension.
Like everybody around here, we grow rice twice a year (Jan-May and June-October). We only plant one variety of inbred rice (Bt7) and we get an average yield of 5 tonnes/ha.

Most farmers I see working in the field around here seem to be women. How come?
The men work as hard as we do in the rice fields. But as I told you, the men often have another job in the city in addition to farming. So they only get involved in the most important phases (plowing, sawing, harvesting, applying pesticides…) and the women care of the fields on a daily base, performing activities such as weeding, checking the irrigation or applying fertilizer.

You have been working as a rice grower for nearly 5 decades. How have things changed over time?
Things have changed indeed. First of all, when I was a child I remember that everybody was farming rice, there was no other option. Now many people have other jobs in addition to farming, or they stopped farming rice completely. And then, technology and new practices have made our lifes easier: We are now using machines for plowing and harvesting. [Her village owns a few which the farmers can rent out]. A few years ago, following recommendations from the government, we also switched from ‘replanting’ to ‘direct sowing’ in the spring growing season, which means much less work. [In the first case the seeds are being planted in a ‘nursery’ so that they can be better taken care of; they get replanted in the big fields after ca. 3 weeks]. Many farmers now also chose to use herbicides instead of weeding by hand.

Are you happy as a rice farmer?
I’m very happy! I like all the activities in the field, but what I prefer is harvest time. I want to continue working in the field for as long as possible, I would get bored at home! This is a hard job though and I can understand that many people – my children for example – don’t want to do it anymore. But they won’t be able to stop me!

Vu and other farmers weeding on the Syngenta test fields

Typical rice plots of Northern Vietnam (Yenbai province)

 

Sia Lee (Laos)

Name: Sia Lee
Age: 25
Residence: Phon Van, Luang Prabang province
Family: Married, 1 baby daughter
Type and size of farming activity: 7 ha rice; 1 ha vegetables (morning glory, cabbage, lemon grass, chilies + some ‘western’ (he says!) vegetables such as beetroot, radish, zucchini; 13 water buffaloes (9 for meat, 4 for work)
Work force: A community of 7 families who own and work the fields together – additional help from villagers at harvest time (up to 50 people)
Why him: His farming community offers tours for tourists including explanations and hands-on demonstrations of all stages of rice growing. We attended a tour and Sia was our ‘guide’ (he speaks good English). The project is called The Living Land and I definitely recommend it to anybody visiting Luang Prabang, Laos.

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Can you tell me a little bit about your background and what you are doing now for a living?
I was born in a village in the mountains near Luang Prabang, in a family of 14 children. We are part of the ‘Mnong’ so-called ‘hill tribe’. Like everybody else in the village, we were subsistence farmers. As a teenager I went to study IT in Luang Prabang; at the same time I was also working in a restaurant and helping out my parents on the farm – very hard! After I finished my studies, I realized that I couldn’t get a job in IT in Laos, so I went back to my parents’ who in the meantime had moved to the village where we currently live, very close to Luang Prabang. Until today we have been farming together, with 6 other families. We grow rice for our own consumption and vegetables, which we eat ourselves but also directly sell to hotels and restaurants in Luang Prabang. Additional revenue comes from our ‘Living Land farm’ project, which we started in 2011 with the help of westerners: We give tours on our farm and teach tourists about growing rice. This is getting more and more popular: during high season we give the tours daily.

You have just showed us the various stages of growing rice using only very traditional methods and no machines at all. Is this the way you grow rice for real? Can you briefly describe the various stages from sowing to cooking?
We now have one tractor for ploughing (and don’t plow with the buffalo anymore), but apart from that, this is the way we work on our farm. Note that we only have one ‘growing cycle’ lasting from June-July (when we plant) to October-November (when we harvest). In our case we grow 5 different varieties of sticky (=glutinous) rice, the main type of rice consumed in Laos, and one variety of non-sticky rice. We get an average yield of 4t/ha.
Here is a quick overview of the stages [also see photos below]: 1) We select the ‘good’ (= with big kernel inside) seeds from last year to be planted 2) We prepare the fields (ploughing, watering…) 3) We plant the seeds by hand in the ‘nursery area’, 4) After 3-4 weeks we replant them by hand in the big field. We use no chemicals; there is no need – as fertilizer we use buffalo pooh mixed with limestone, we get rid of the weeds by hand, and we don’t much problems with insects or fungi (and there are snails and fishes in the field to eat them). 5) After 4-5 months (depending on the variety) we dry the fields and harvest the rice by hand. 6) After harvest we let the rice dry for a few weeks. 7) We thrash the rice bundles on a wooden board in order to get the rice grains out. 8) We carry the cleaned rice grains home in baskets (drying and thrashing usually takes place next to the field). 9) This is how we conserve rice; It’s only before we need the rice for cooking that we separate the white kernel from the husk, first with a rice pounder and then simply by ‘turning’ the rice in the air to get rid of the lighter husks (this is typically the women’s job). There you go, the rice is ready for consumption! It’s called ‘brown’ rice because the grain is still covered by the next layer underneath the husk (since the husk has been removed manually).

What about the average Lao farmer – does he also grow rice in such a traditional way?
I would say that agriculture in Laos is slowly getting modernized and more mechanized. For example many farmers in the plains now use tractors to plow their fields, and some also use machines for planting and harvesting. Chemicals are also being increasingly used. However in the villages where everybody farms rice – in the hills for example – it is still very common to work as a community, planting and harvesting together, everything done by hand.

What is the farming activity you like best/least?
I love the time of harvest. There is a real sense of community because we are so many people working in the field together. There is also a real sense of achievement: our rice is ready, we now have our food for the next season! The activity I like the least is weeding – it needs to be done all the time, especially since we only grow rice in the rainy season! It’s painful work but we don’t want to use herbicides – they are too expensive; and we have rather small plots and enough workforce, this can be done by hand!

What’s your goal for the future
I want to live a happy life with my family and have enough rice to eat! Currently I’m happy with what and how we farm, as well as with our ‘Living Land’ project – no need to change or increase anything. But this could change in the future, we’ll see.

Some of the steps of growing rice in images (mouse-over the image to see the caption):

Selecting the ‘good’ grains to be planted: Put the grains in salty water; the good ones are heavy and sink to the bottom; the ones at the surface can be discarded

Plowing the fields – many farmers in Laos still do this using a water buffalo (and yes, it’s ME skilfully maneuvering the plow!)

Replanting the 3 week old seedlings to the bigger field – Raphaël is helping Lee

6 week old rice

After harvest, thrashing the rice to get out the grains

This is how the ’empty’ rice plants are piled up – to be used as animal forage

A traditional way of breaking the rice husks

Separating the rice kernels from the (lighter) husks – always a women’s job in Laos

Steaming the rice in a bamboo basket

Sticky rice is ready!

Jon Jandai (Thailand)

Name: Jon Jandai
Age: 51
Residence: Mae Jo, Chiang Mai province
Family: Married, 1 son
Type and size of farming activity: Ca 3.6 ha farmed organically for seed production, self-subsidence and (a little) for sales: rice, vegetables (over 400 varieties), herbs, corn, fruit trees (mango, papaya, longan, banana, star fruit…) Also: fish and chicken.
Work force: A community of ca. 15 people, plus some volunteers (often foreigners who stay for a few weeks)
Why him: A Thai friend told me about Jon and his farm. I contacted him to make an appointment and met him at his farm.
About Jon and the Punpun project: Jon grew up in a farmer family in the North-East of Thailand and considers himself a farmer and an earthen home builder. Jon co-founded Punpun with his American wife Peggy in 2003 as a small organic farm, a seed saving center, and a sustainable living and learning center. One goal of the project is to live a more self-reliant life by growing organic food and building natural homes. The other goal is to bring back the tradition of seed saving amongst farmers by collecting, propagating, and exchanging indigenous and rare varieties. Punpun offers ‘self reliant living’ workshops to Thais and foreigners. Learn more on the Punpun website. Learn more about Jon’s vision of life in a TED talk he gave in 2011 (15’).

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Why do you think that it is important to save seeds?
Seed is food, seed is life! But today a few global companies own the seed market – and therefore the food of the world – and farmers are depending on them. They don’t grow indigenous varieties anymore, and those can be gone within a few years. Every day seeds disappear from the earth and there is no way of getting them back! We want to slow down this process of losing seed varieties. We collect seeds from all over the world, but we mainly concentrate on indigenous vegetable varieties. We not only collect the seeds (like a Seed Bank), but we also propagate them and distribute them to farmers for free, so that they can grow them and help keep the species alive. Every year we give away seeds to thousands of people. It’s important to have variety among the seeds, because not one variety is perfect; different varieties give food security. And it’s not only important for farmers to have the choice for the seeds they plant, but also for consumers for the seeds they eat. By saving seeds we give back choice to people.

You grow your crops ‘organically’, meaning without the use of chemical pesticides or fertilizers. Only few farmers chose this type of farming because it’s considered difficult and low-yielding. What is your experience with organic farming?
I don’t think it’s difficult. The only difficulty is that there is no market (yet) in Thailand to sell organic produces. I believe there is a natural solution to every problem encountered on the fields. For example, we use ducks on our rice fields to eat snails and insects. One way of fertilizing the soil is to plant crops like beans or lucerne that produce nitrogen. Another example: we keep weeds, grass and organic matter on the soil to protect it; most people think of weeds as ‘enemies’, but they can be strong allies against erosion! The first year I started growing rice, my yield was very low. But year after year it increased thanks to the various natural methods we tried out. So, organic agriculture needs a lot of experimentation, and also some patience. I believe that if the farmer is willing to experiment – and doesn’t intend to make big money with farming – organic agriculture works everywhere in the world.

What’s the mindset and situation of a typical farmer in Thailand, does he share your views?
The organic movement is still very small in Thailand. I think that most farmers here want to make money, and that’s why they worry and are not happy! Farmers don’t want to experiment anymore, they are afraid of losing money. They want a solution that they believe will work for sure, a ‘formula’, like a chemical – never mind if this formula is expensive and not sustainable. A problem is also that chemical companies advertise everywhere and that they are supported by the government. So farmers make high investment but then they have to carry the burden of their investment, sometimes for the rest of their lives. They may have a higher yield thanks to technology, but they can’t be sure that they will be able to sell their products with a good return – maybe the prices will fall!
That’s why I’m all in favor of a ‘small’ agriculture, adapted to the land, using ‘low tech technologies’ and local varieties. This will make farmers’ life easier and happier. I think that there are more and more people interested in this conception of agriculture – given the popularity of the ‘self reliance’ workshops offered at our Punpun farm. In the beginning, mainly westerners came; now over 70% of the course attendees are Thais – farmers and others – who are interested in living a different, quieter and more peaceful life.

Clearly, you don’t like ‘the big companies’ in agribusiness. But do you think that a dialogue with them is possible? They may not be as bad as you think and maybe they could learn from you?
I don’t think a dialogue is possible. These companies are here to make money, that’s it. But don’t get me wrong, I’m not against technology. I don’t think the whole world should go organic. If some farmers want to use chemicals, that’s fine! But farmers need to have the choice, they should not be forced to use technology and depend on big companies.

What’s your vision for the future?
I don’t have much of a vision. I don’t think big. I can not change the world, but I can help myself! I’m very happy to help the community, but people have to come to me. It would be great though to see the seed saving movement keep on spreading in Thailand and elsewhere.

When I was at the farm, a ‘self relient living’ workshop in Thai was taking place. Here the participants are taught how to get, prepare and conserve the seeds from various fruits and vegetables

The section of the Punpun garden dedicated to propagating seed (not for consumption). In the foreground, a rare variety of black tomatoes.

Workshop participants are also learning how to build simple buildings with local, natural materials such as adobe.

 

Supakorn Boonsri (Thailand)

THANK YOU VERY MUCH to TERDPONG MAHAWONG and to PRADITH WONGYALA, trialing managers at Syngenta R&D, for making this interview possible and providing so much additional info about agriculture in Thailand.

Name: Supakorn Boonsri
Age: 31
Residence: Bankrang, Suphanburi province
Family: Married, 1 baby daughter
Type and size of farming activity: Rice (40 rai =6,4 ha); mango (200 trees)
Work force: Himself; service providers for sawing, spraying and harvesting (they provide the machines and the work force)
Why him: I went to visit the Syngenta Suphanburi rice trialing hub and he is one of the farmers who rents out a small part of his land to Syngenta.
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Can you tell more about your rice fields and the way you grow rice?
My father has been a rice grower and I have inherited the land from him. I grow a local aromatic variety called Pathumthani 1 (PTT1). I reach an average yield of 6,2 t/ha and I’m quite happy with that, even if I’m still trying to optimize it. In this region of Central Thailand there are 2 growing seasons, one from ca. May to August (during the rainy season) and one from December to February (during the dry season). But more and more farmers struggle with planting rice during the dry season because of the lack of water. Here most steps of rice growing are mechanized. Myself, I don’t own big agricultural machines, but I rent the necessary equipment for ploughing, sowing, fertilizing, spraying and harvesting. There are many weeds, pests and diseases attacking rice here and it’s necessary to use various chemicals against them; I use generics because they are cheaper than the products from the big companies. After harvesting, I sell my rice to the local cooperative who takes care of processing it and then selling it to another company which is in charge of marketing & sales on the domestic market and abroad. I receive about 9000 baht (250$) /t, and I’m quite happy with that, given that I know other farmers who only receive 6500 baht for their variety of lesser quality. This price has been about the same over the past couple of years.

What are your main concerns for your rice?

• The current drought – I’m not sure whether I’ll be able to have a proper harvest during the dry season this year.
• The rat attacks – Those have increased massively recently because my fields are one of the few areas where there is still some water, so all the rats come here. I’m protecting my fields by putting an electric wire around them; it kills the rats who are trying to enter the field
• The cold – Of course it doesn’t really get cold here, but it could still be too cold! Thai rice varieties are very sensitive to cold and there is no protection against cold.
• The market – will I be able to continue to sell my rice at a good price?

You only bought the field with the mango trees in 2015 and this will be the first season that you will harvest mangoes. Why did you decide to grow mangoes in addition to rice?
Because of the drought. Until a few years ago, the dam up in the north released plenty of water to fill up the main canal around here, and we all had enough water to grow rice also during the dry season. But this has changed recently: The rainy season has become shorter and it rains less. Now the main canal is empty for many months. [I read that the 2015 drought in Thailand was due to the El Nino phenomenon and that an even harsher drought is expected in 2016.] So unless farmers find another way to get to water, they can’t grow rice twice per year anymore. This is the reason why many farmers now try to grow another crop that requires less water during the dry season – such as Chinese kale. Personally, I installed a pump to reach the ground water and for now I can irrigate my rice fields. But I’m not sure if this will be enough to get a full harvest. So I’d rather start growing another crop with which I can make some additional money. I chose mango trees because I think that the environment here is good for them and they don’t require much work.

What is your goal in life?
I want to remain a farmer and live in my village. And I want to make enough money to pay a good education to my little daughter.

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ADDITIONAL INFO
This farmer didn’t talk about it but I’ve been hearing a lot here about the Thai ‘Rice subsidy scheme’ introduced in 2011 by the previous government. This was a populist measure supposed to help farmers. It sought to buy rice from local farmers at above-market prices, stockpile them to drive up global prices. It was obviously very popular with farmers but it didn’t work out because India returned to the rice export market after a long absence and prices dropped worldwide. The government lost billions of bahts and many farmers still haven’t been paid. Read more

Chanthima Kaevtiamthong (Thailand)

Name: Chanthima (Lek) Kaevtiamthong
Age: 49
Residence: Bang Saphan Noi (on the Gulf coast of Southern Thailand)
Family: Married, 1 son
Type and size of farming activity: Rubber tree plantation; 13 ha (= 80 ‘rai’)/ 5600 trees
Work force: 3 families (about 12 people)
Why her: She also owns a guesthouse where we stayed for one night. She speaks good French since she studied in Lyon, France for some years.

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You own a guesthouse and you also own a rubber tree plantation, how come?
Most people here who own some business related to tourism also work in the rubber industry. The tourist season is quite short and usually doesn’t provide enough income to make a living. People need a more stable and constant source of income, and in this region rubber is the dominant crop and ’employer’. In our case, the land had belonged to my family for years. Since my brothers and sisters weren’t interested in having it, my husband and I bought it and established the rubber tree plantation 12 years ago. We don’t work in the plantations ourselves. I employ 3 families from Laos and Burma who work on the plantation quite independently. We share the benefits of the harvest (60% for us, 40% for them).

What’s the history of rubber tree plantations in this region and what other crops grow around here?
Rubber is still a relatively new crop. In the past, this region was dominated by coconut plantations. But about 20 years ago, people realized that more money could be made with rubber, and they switched from coconut to rubber. Coconut is still an important crop, so are oil palms. There are also many pineapple plantations in this area – and of course, shrimp farms.

Can you describe the tasks of the workers in your plantation?
Every day they start working in the plantation at 3 in the morning, to make the cuts in the trees’ bark in order to let the sap – called latex – flow out; they have to do this in the coolness of the night when the sap flows freely. The sap is collected from each tree about 5 hours later and added to a big container. Some farmers who need the money right away would chose to sell the collected sap on the same day. But we’d rather wait a few months before selling it until we can get the best price for it. In order to preserve the latex, our workers add some product [usually formic acid – the result stinks incredibly!] to the sap so that it can coagulate and get thicker. The mass is then worked to ‘balls’, which we will sell later to the local factory for further processing and export. [Another way of conserving the coagulated sap is making ‘sheets’, see picturebelow. We have seen this a lot across plantations in Thailand; it requires slightly more work than the ‘balls’]. The next day the workers do a new cut on the same trees, but in a different location of the bark. Every 8 to 10 months, the trees are left to rest. The trees can basically be tapped all year round except for the 3 months of heavy rainy season. The workers are also in charge of cleaning the plantations (mainly removing the weeds) and of applying fertilizer (done right before the rainy season).

What is your biggest concern regarding your plantation and how do you see the future?
I’m concerned that the price of rubber has gone down a lot over the past years. In the early 2000s, under Prime Minister Thaksin, the price of rubber was up to 120 baht/kg [1$~36 baht]. Over the past few years it was at around 60 baht/kg, but right now it’s only at around 40 baht/kg. This represents a big loss for us! Moreover, in the past we could also sell the wood of the tree – to make furniture for example – but now it’s not used anymore. When you think that it takes 7 years for a tree to start producing latex, you realize that it’s risky to invest in a new plantation, not knowing how the price of rubber will evolve. In our case, our trees started producing latex 5 years ago and only then did we start getting some return on our investment. So we are going to wait a few more years and see how the price of rubber will do. If it keeps on falling, we will need to think about growing something different. Currently it’s more valuable to grow coconut trees than rubber trees (whereas it was the opposite 10 years ago), but this could change again.

To learn more about agriculture in Southern Thailand, see my related article: Palm oil – good or bad? (Some of the environmental issues I highlight are also valid for rubber tree plantations)

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ABOUT RUBBER TREES

The scientific name of the rubber tree is Hevea brasiliensis. The milky sap – called latex – extracted from the tree is the primary source of natural rubber.

The rubber tree initially grew only in the Amazon rainforest. Increasing demand and the discovery of the vulcanization procedure in 1839 led to the rubber boom in that region. Soon attempts were made to grow the tree outside Brazil and the first seedlings germinated at the Royal Kew Botanic Gardens in London. At the end of the 18^th century rubber was extensively propagated in the British colonies.

In 2014, natural rubber exports amounted to $16.5 billion, a 33% decline since 2010. Thailand is the biggest exporter of natural rubber (36% of total rubber exports).

Natural rubber only represents about 1/3 of total rubber production; the rest is produced synthetically.

Youtube movie explaining how natural rubber is made (5’5’’)

This is how the tree is cut and how the sap is collected

‘Sheets’ of rubber drying

Cycling through rubber tree plantations in Southern Thailand

Keh Chong Kwang (Malaysia)

THANK YOU VERY MUCH to Koh Pei Yuan, Syngenta sales representative for Cameron Highlands, for making this interview possible.

Name: Keh Chong Kwang
Age: 75
Residence: Kampung Raja, Cameron Highlands
Family: Married, 5 children (2 are owning the farm with him)
Type and size of farming activity: Vegetables and fruits (tomato, cucumber, eggplant, salad, cauliflower, broccoli, strawberry, grapes). 55 ha (of which he owns 15 ha and leases the rest)
Work force: about 200 people (mainly foreigners from Nepal, Bangladesh and Indonesia)
Why him: He is a client of Koh who took me along to see him
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You are one of the biggest, most successful and most ‘modern’ grower in Cameron Highlands (CH). How did you get where you are today?
I grew up in a farmer family I a neighboring state and I have always had a passion for farming. However, 46 years ago I moved to CM on my own and started this business myself. I had the will to succeed, that’s all it takes! I bought 37 acres [15 ha] of land from a tea estate and I invested progressively over the years. Land is very limited in CH, I knew that I couldn’t buy more land; so I had to focus on yield and quality to grow the business. I have travelled to countries like Japan and Taiwan to learn about their agricultural technologies and techniques and have adopted/ adapted many of those on my own farm. Today we are operating state of the art glasshouses, using modern technologies such as ‘hydroponics’ [cultivation of plants in nutrient-rich solution, rather than in soil, and under controlled conditions] and ‘fertigation’ [fertilizer administered together with irrigation.] Everything has been optimized for yield and quality – just to give you a number: every day we produce 12 to 15 tons of tomatoes. But we continue to experiment. For example, we are now trying to grow strawberries on rows one above each other, in order to maximize space.

What is your main driver?
I admit that it’s making money! Look, my grandchildren are telling me that they want to study in the UK or the US. This is going to be very costly!

Where do you sell your products?
I’m proud to say that about 40% of our products go to Singapore, one of the country with the strictest legislation in terms of quality and safety for imported vegetables. For a long time we didn’t manage to compete with Australia – the main tomato supplier for Singapore in the past. But then with improved tomato varieties (in particular tomatoes with longer shelf-life), the use of better technology, and lower prices than Australia, we started establishing ourselves on the Singaporean market.
We sell the rest of our products on the domestic market – mainly to a major brand of supermarkets called ‘Giant’. There is no point for us in trying to export our vegetables further abroad; we simply can’t compete with other cheaper Asian countries for exporting vegetables.
We have a packing facility on site and we own about 10 trucks which daily drive throughout the country to supply our customers with fresh vegetables.

What are your main concerns as a grower?
Basically only one big concern: workforce! Despite our modern technologies we still need a lot of people on the ground, and those are not easy to find. Local people don’t want to do this hard job and the government is making it increasingly difficult and costly for us to hire foreigners.

What is your view on some of the agriculture-related environmental problems faced in CH, such as land erosion, ground water pollution…
If agriculture is practiced well – like we do it – there is no problem. Illegal land usage is to blame for many such issues. I’m also aware that because most farmers here don’t own their land but only lease it on a short term basis, they don’t care so much about it, and often work against the environment. That’s not good, you always have to work with the environment.

How do you see the future of your farm?
I have no doubt that it will continue to be successful. My two sons are fully involved in the business and I’m also confident more long term. Human beings will always need to eat and we have one of the most modern, productive and sustainable facility here to grow vegetables.

Read related article: Farming in Cameron Highlands

   
Inside the glasshouses of Mr. Kwon: Hydroponic tomatoes and lettuce
   
Workers from Bangladesh packing lettuce;
The tomato-sorting machine (tomatoes are automatically sorted by color)