Menu

Farmers Exchanges

An onsite-online discussion among the young farmers - December 2021

On 9-10 December 2021, 15 young farmers from Northeastern Thailand gathered at the "Sumsang Organic Farm" in Mahasarakham Province. After discussing among themselves, they talk to around 10 young and senior farmers from Lao PDR via the Zoom application. The onsite and online cross-border exchange covered the issues of organic farming practices that aim to both produce food for families and also to sell in the village and town communities. The power of young farmers who worked hard during the epidemic was explored, and the experiences shared were exciting and inspired.

Farmers Exchange - May 2019

Farmer exchange 2019 occurred in three provinces in Northeastern Thailand in May 2019. All 16 participants came from Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Thailand. The team traveled to Ubon Ratchathani Province and discuss together the main issues related to their agriculture practices and livelihood, and also the need for organic farming in different contexts. After that, they traveled to Sisaket Province and stay in the "Sisa Ashoka", the village that applies Buddhism, vegetarian food adn organic products altogether. Participants observe and practice the organic farm and learn about their ideology. Finally, they went to Yasothorn Province to met and learn from the groups of organic farmers there. 

The supporting organisation for this trip is Thailand's Sustainable Agriculture Network. 

Farmers Exchange - February 2018

The one-week exchange and field practices among the small-scale organic farmers from Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Thailand that happened at the end of February 2018, is a project conducted by Project SEVANA South-East Asia, in the close cooperation with Equitable Cambodia and Thailand’s Sustainable Agriculture Network. The project brought numbers of farmers and local leaders for the three countries those are similar in many ways from language, culture and also the key problems to meet and work together. The destruction of land, water and natural forests by the major projects and investments in the three countries is the one among also the serious problems they are all facing. This program allows them to share their experiences,  exchange the ideas and also practices organic farming in the farm in Surin and Yasothorn Province, North-eastern Thailand. In this program, organic farming, not only learned and exchange as the tool to sustain people’s livelihood, but also the tool to insist on the peoples’ needs in protecting and reclaiming the original value of the livelihood that depends on both natural resources and agriculture.

Farmers exchange - August 2017

The Exchange trip among the 15 people, mostly the farmers from Thailand and Cambodia, but also the NGOs staff and media person from Laos happened in June and August in 2017. The first trip in June was the visit to Surin, Yasothorn, Amnart Charoen, and Kalasin Province in Northeastern Thailand, where the new sugar and biofuel factories are being proposed. The exchange team travels for more than 740 kilometers to learned and exchanged on the movement by the local community and also, about the value of sustainable/organic agriculture which people are relying on. 

The second trip in August 2017 was a lot shorter than the first on distance. The team travel some 160 kilometers within Koh Kong Province in Cambodia and learned from both the communities allocate by the coastal area. The group then traveled to see and meet with the people in the affected community the sugarcane plantations and sugar factory invested by the Thai sugar company.