Bangkok--26 Dec--BRIA Regional Secretariat
Better Rice Initiative Asia (BRIA) under the German Food Partnership (GFP), the Rice Department (RD) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, and Bayer CropScience recently organized a multi-stakeholder workshop at the Regent Palace Ubon Ratchathani Hotel, to gather first-hand information about farmers' problems in preparation for BRIA's capacity building activities.
Dr. Apichart Pongsrihadulchai, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, who chaired the workshop, informed the participants about the rice sector restructuring plan for 2015 to achieve sustainable rice development with regard to the economy, society and environment.
The rice sector restructuring plan aims to enhance competitiveness, raise production efficiency and rice quality, promote production of rice for niche markets, reduce off-season rice cultivation, and grow other cash crops in unsuitable areas. The plan would be proposed to Prime Minister Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha and the cabinet for consideration.
Mr. Kukiat Soitong, BRIA Consultant and Former Rice Promotion Specialist at the Rice Department, said the workshop, which was based on the Participatory Impact Pathways Analysis (PIPA), sought to empower participating farmers who were asked to identify and analyze matters of their immediate concern, and come up with 'better rice initiatives’ for their own communities.
Apart from farmers from 8 targeted community rice centers (CRC), the workshop gathered participants from private and public organizations including rice mills, the rice research center, the rice seed center, the agricultural extension office, the non-formal and informal education office, local administrative organizations, the provincial cooperative office, the office of the commercial affairs, the chamber of commerce; and was facilitated by RD experts.
The participants were asked to assess issues ranging from selection of suitable rice seeds and rate, land preparations, appropriate planting time, water management to harvesting, post-harvesting, and transport and storage.
During the workshop, farmers raised such problems as soil analysis and fertility, lack of irrigation systems, quality rice seeds, proper use of organic and chemical fertilizers, farm record keeping and accounting, ploughing and turning over rice stubble. What farmers wanted to achieve is to lower production costs, increase yield, improve rice quality, grow seasonal rice crops and be linked to the market.
“Bayer CropScience wishes to support BRIA’s capacity building activities to train farmers in sustainable rice production. We are looking for opportunities to initiate activities that will benefit people in the Northeast. The outcome of the PIPA workshop, which brought farmers together, will determine the training materials,” said Mr. Jumroon Supapol, Technical & Product Stewardship Manager, Bayer CropScience Business Group.
The participants also identified and linked major stakeholders in the rice value chain including farmers themselves, policy makers, production input and service providers, researchers, financial institutions as well as appraised their impact, influence and interest.
A CRC leader shared his center’s achievement in signing an MoU with a local cooperative to distribute their rice while a participating farmer expressed his wish to produce quality rice and be the one who sells the produce.
Asst. Prof. Natchapol Samard of Ubon Ratchathani University observed a successful CRC should have a good community leader, ethical committee members with transparent management, cooperation among members, strong self-reliance, knowledge management both inside and outside the community and networking within and outside the community.
BRIA will select one of the CRCs as the nucleus for transfer of knowledge to the other seven, which will become its centralized network.