Thailand

 

	In 1998, "Insects: Friends or Foes of Farmers?" featuring IPM farmers was broadcast for one hour on national television, precipitating Royal support for IPM work.
	Since 1998, nearly 15 Training of Trainers courses and hundreds of Farmer Field Schools have been conducted by the departments of Non-Formal Education and Agricultural Extension.
	Courses for Farmer Trainers have been conducted through both of these departments, and farmer-led field schools are underway in four regions of the country.
	Already a pioneer in the area, Thailand is increasing efforts in school IPM, with 44 schools currently involved. Work is also underway with eight Agricultural Colleges.

Background:  The Community IPM (CIPM) programme in Thailand has a history quite unique in the region. In the 1980's efforts to build capacity in pest surveillance and economic threshold analysis brought some, if limited, success. In the late 1980s, this work was adapted in the country's central region with support from the FAO Inter-Country Program to build farmer's skills in taking more immediate and self-reliant crop management decisions themselves. In the early and mid-1990's, however, IPM implementation slowed until nearly stagnant due to technology transfer-oriented approaches by entrenched plant protection and extension systems, as well as close and mutually-beneficial relationships between many government staff and the pesticide industry.

A number of breakthroughs occurred in the later part of the 1990's. The first was that the Ministry of Education, with support from CIPM and Thai Education Foundation (TEF), pioneered IPM activities with primary school children, a program that caught the interest of both central level planners and the media. Shortly thereafter, the Education Ministry's Department of Non-Formal Education (DNFE), also collaborating with the CIPM and TEF, began conducted training courses for their staff and field schools for both farmers and NFE students.

The other major development during this period came with Royal support IPM and field schools, bringing about the creation of the Institute of Biological Agriculture and Farmer Field Schools (IBAFFS) in the Department of Agriculture Extension (DOAE). The CIPM provided IPM trainers from the region and partial financial support for the initial training courses undertaken by this institute under a Royal Initiative, as well as those conducted by the DNFE.

Recent Developments: Currently, IPM and Farmer Field Schools enjoy strong backing and financial support from both the Ministries of Agriculture and Education. Field Schools have and are being conducted in nearly every province nationwide, and year around where irrigation permits. Farmer-to-Farmer Field Schools are underway in four regions, and the Department of Vocational Education (DOVE), together with TEF, is implementing IPM curricula and activities in its Agriculture Colleges. Primary school students are doing research on the prevalence of pesticide poisoning in their communities. Many Sub-District Administrative Councils are interested in financing more field schools. Field Schools have even been conducted with prison inmates as part of their pre-release vocational training.

The major challenge is to sustain and temper the current interest, enthusiasm and support toward promoting innovation and expansion, while ensuring the sustainability and quality of activities at the field level.

Thailand Crop Data area (ha) prod.n (Mt) yields (hg/ha) Source: FAOSTAT

Thailand Facts Click here  to download general information Source: World Factbook

Thailand Map Click here  to download a relief map of this country (269kb) Source: Texas University

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