Bangkok--4 Dec--BRIA Regional Secretariat
Better Rice Initiatives Asia (BRIA) has selected 8 Community Rice Centers (CRC) in Ubon Ratchathani Province to implement its project for the north eastern region, following a recent field visit made together with responsible government agencies to this province.
Dr. Apichart Pongsrihadulchai, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MOAC), explained according to the site selection criteria, the selected sites should have active farmer participation with existing ‘smart farmers’, convenient transportation, sufficient water resources, Tambon (Sub-District) Administrative Organization support, and strength of Community Seed Centers (CSC).
The 8 selected CRCs are in Mueng District, Khueang Nai District, Det Udom District, Trakan Phuet Phon District, Muang Sam Sip District, Warin Chamrap District, Loa Suea Kok Distict, and Buntharik District.
Mr. Suriyan Vichitlekarn, BRIA Regional Project Director, said BRIA will support the eight CRCs with capacity building by training mainly to increase production. One of the CRCs will be selected as the nucleus to be a role model for plot management while the other seven will be a centralized network to obtain knowledge transfer from the nucleus. Each CRC will share knowledge to farmers in nearby communities. After Ubon Ratchathani, the project will expand to CRCs in the provinces of Srisaket, Surin, Roi-et, to eventually form a Northeastern cooperation network.
Based on the Participatory Impact Pathways Analysis (PIPA), the training materials for capacity building will be designed to match with the requirements of local farmers and other involved parties for sustainable agricultural development.
Mr. Udorn Chamalerk, Director of Ubon Ratchathani Provincial Agricultural Extension Office, said the province has 24 districts, 295,393 agricultural families, rice cultivation areas of 4.29 million rais divided into 3.06 million rais for round-shaped rice with an average yield of 437 kg/rai, and 1.23 million rais for glutinous rice with an average yield of 447 kg/rai. There are 177 CRCs in Ubon Ratchathani.
Mr. Chanpithya Shimphalee, Director General of the Rice Department (RD), commented today rice production in the Northeast is inefficient. Rice farmers prefer a direct seeding technique than transplanting since they are short of labor. Direct seeding normally generates lower yield because of weeds. The RD will support and drive the concept of large field management by combining small fields with farm machinery support.
Mr. Olan Pituck, Director General of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DoAE), opined the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives has a zoning policy to classify farming areas into suitable and unsuitable. The zoning concept and characteristics of each zone should be communicated in a clear and easy manner to farmers.
The duration of the BRIA project is from 2013 to 2017.