Category: Film project

This morning we were up early to go to the temple with Khun Yai, and then back to Bangkok. We’ll be up early tomorrow morning to catch our flight to Hanoi. As I’ve already said before, we have met some wonderful people here in Thailand. The issues we are facing are global. Local people are observing and experiencing changes in climate. However, we don’t need to feel helpless or depressed. The only true solutions in my view will come about from positive local actions, and that view has been strongly reinforced by the people we have met in Thailand. There is real potential for Thailand to provide us all with leadership for the future, towards a more balanced approach to working with our environment. The self sufficiency economy is founded on long-held wisdom that the true foundation of a sustainable economy is a well-balanced ecology. Working with nature, not withdrawal from nature or against nature, is the key.

Pacharee, friend of Khun Yai, looked after us for the morning along with Mr Santi Jeeyapan. Santi works as a facilitator to support villagers doing farm based research. We drove out to Naku Village, near Ayutthaya, where we met with three local farmers: Pattapee Poungsuwan, Somnuk Sanksem, and Yaowaluck Sukseeleang. We interviewed all three together in quite a challenging setting, a small roadside cafe. All three farmers have decided to move towards organic production because of concerns with degradation of the land and the high cost of inputs. The climate has definitely changed with more erratic weather patterns than in the past. Last September there was widespread flooding in Thailand and Ayutthaya Province was one of the worst affected, because it is low lying. They were all clear that the cause of the problem is people and that there is a need for a more balanced approach working with nature.

Yaowaluck Sukseeleang and Pattapee Poungsuwan both had their farms right next to the cafe,  so we went into the field to talk to them some more.

Yaowaluck is an amazing woman. She learnt rice growing from her parents, beginning when she was 10 years old and has now been a rice farmer for 29 years. Yaowaluck farmers 56 rai (about 20 acres, or 8 hectares) on her own. At times in the past she has felt depressed and tried other work. People think farming is a dirty job, but she is clearly very passionate about her work and life as a farmer. Yaowaluck is a true leader for the future.

We then walked down the road to Pattapee’s farm. He stopped growing rice and shifted to organic vegetable production for the Bangkok market. This was a more financially viable option for him, as well as good for the environment.

Fortunately today has been a bit quieter, a short trip (1 hour) by taxi to the old city of Ayutthaya and visiting some of the old Wat (temple) ruins (in incredible heat and humidity). We actually ordered the taxi to take us to the train station, but then the taxi driver said he would take us all the way for 700 baht (less than NZ$30).

Tomorrow we’re going out to a local village, our last bit on the ground in Thailand.

We spent part of the afternoon visiting some of the ruins of Ayutthaya with our new host, Khun Yai. In the evening we went to a night market for dinner by the river and then drove around to enjoy the ruins lit up at night time.

This morning we went back to re-interview Mr La Ong Dao, village leader at Bo Luk Lang village and key player in the model project for Sa Kaew Province. We had filmed him on the fly on Monday, but were so impressed with him that we wanted more time. Mr La Ong Dao is quite unique in that unlike many village people who are University educated he chose to return to his village rather than go to a comfortable city job. He is doing a fantastic job in leading by example. Through his efforts they have a community information system and a community bank. Now he is leading by example to develop more sustainable land use and address the very real effects of land degradation and climate change that they are experiencing. He has a bet with Ajarn Yak that he will achieve higher yields than Ajarn Yak is predicting, and he is very confident of winning the bet. He says that he is a winner!! I am going to do my very best to come back in the next couple of years to witness the transformation.

Footnote: When back in Thailand briefly in March 2010 I asked about how Mr La Ong Dao had gone.  I was told that he has not yet won his bet with Ajarn Yak and has become a NATO (No Action Talk Only) person.

Ajarn Yak has been working in Sa Kaew Province, a drought prone area of Thailand, to get buy-in from people there with the goal of encouraging the whole Province to adopt the self sufficient economy model.

In the morning we attended a large gathering, in an open air school auditorium, of farmers and their children. The approach was to present people with the basic principles of the self sufficiency economy and then invite them to further training. I was asked to talk for 10 minutes, and Lena also spoke. People commented afterwards, to our hosts, that they had felt they were alone in experiencing drought, problems with lack of water, and more erratic weather patterns. It opened their eyes to hear that other people were experiencing the same things in other parts of the world.

After a lunch break we went to the countryside and filmed some farm workers planting tapioca cuttings in the intense heat and humidity of the afternoon.  Tapioca is pretty much an end of the line crop in degraded soils. We spoke with the leaseholder who talked about the degraded soil and drought situation.  He said that he was waiting for the government to create rain and commented and if the rain didn’t come he said “I’m dead”. He added that deforestation is a problem and that there was a need to plant more trees.

We then went to the Provincial government buildings where I gave a powerpoint presentation to senior provincial officials.  Later we met with the Governor. The outcome of this meeting was that the Sa Kaew Governor has committed to support a model project in the province.