Healthy smiles are returning to the faces of northern farmers who are enjoying higher prices for their crops and a better quality of life by growing organic grain for Capital Rice. - WALAILAK KEERATIPIPATPONG

source: bangkok post

The accomplishment may seem small but for Karj Panyalah the fact that he can now walk barefoot through his own rice fields speaks volumes. Thirteen years ago the Chiang Rai farmer turned his back on the use of chemicals and since then health has gradually returned to the soil of his two plots of land, to him and his family and, hopefully, to those who eventually eat the grain he grows.

Indeed, Karj may not realise it but there are several thousand people, living thousands of kilometres away, who are willing to pay premium prices for his organic jasmine rice; it currently commands about 15 to 20 percent above the average market rate for ordinary rice. The clientele for the Great Harvest and Tai Tai rice brands, of which Karj is a supplier, extends far beyond Thailand to major cities in the European Union, New Zealand, Singapore and, recently, the US.

"We're ahead of our neighbours by a full decade," said a beaming Karj. "They were lured by the [agro-]chemicals while we've been developing our own natural compost. So now even if a bag of chemical fertiliser were to jump to 1,000 baht, we'd still be doing fine.

"In fact, I don't even have to put anything [into the soil] and I still get good crops. Growing organic rice isn't easy but it's not that difficult either as long as you're committed to the philosophy and understand it. Now we feel safe enough to walk through our fields; it's great, now I can work with my shoes off."

Back in 1991, though, when a group of businessmen and officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives went to survey Karj's neighbourhood, they encountered much scepticism. Saksit Thammasorn, one of the pioneers of this organic-rice venture, recalled that the village of Sri Jom-jaeng, where Karj currently leads an organic farmers' group of the same name, was then accessible only by an unsealed track. Construction of an asphalt highway quickly followed, however, and with it, a flood of modern influences. Saksit said the locals, subsistence farmers for the most part, were bombarded by all sorts of "progressive" paraphernalia _ including chemical fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides.

As a result, the option of growing organic rice, which yields only one harvest a year, did not sound that appealing. In the first year of the organic-rice scheme, only 19 farmers signed up, their smallholdings comprising an area of 385 rai (1 rai equals 1,600 square metres or 0.40 acre) scattered in and around Phee Pan Nam Valley, the watershed of the Ing River. But, a year later, 133 more joined and the total area rose to 4,987 rai.

The scheme currently encompasses three groups of farmers _ the Sri Jom-jaeng, Ban Kiang and Organic 2000 clubs _ and takes in land across the provinces of Chiang Rai (Thoeng district) and Phayao (Chiang Kham and Chun districts). About 1,500 tonnes of paddy classified as organic are now churned out each year, over 90 percent of which is exported. Capital Rice, the main business partner in this project, says about 6,000 rai of land is now officially registered as being under organic cultivation; these farms are subject to regular checks by the Italian regulatory agency BioAgriCert (formerly BioAgriCoop). According to Wanlop Pichpongsa, assistant managing director of Capital Rice, that 6,000 rai could double _ provided that there is sufficient demand for produce of this nature.

This proviso is of vital significance given the magnitude _ and the cost _ of the changes involved in switching from conventional to organic farming. To encourage farmers to adopt the more complicated, labour-intensive methods required, they need to be offered incentives plus a guarantee of higher prices for their crops. This entails the identification of niche markets _ finding consumers willing and able to pay more for organic rice. The domestic demand for organic rice remains small, however; there has been little growth in the past decade. And, unlike locally grown organic fruit and vegetables, this commodity is still largely destined for the overseas market. Green Net, a non-governmental organisation which also exports (certified) organic jasmine rice, estimated that, in 2002, organic rice and other grain worth 68.99 million baht was exported, compared to domestic sales of 23.43 million baht.

In the global arena, the issue of setting standards and ensuring that they are adhered to by having farms certified by independent, internationally recognised agencies, thus looms large. The deal which Capital Rice signed with Italian importer Riseria Monferrato S.R.L. stipulates the engaging of one such agency. Capital Rice did not reveal the exact figure it spends on hiring inspectors from BioAgriCert _ which is accredited by the International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements _ "but it sure is a lot" in the opinion of several officials involved.

The first three years after a grower switches to organic farming are crucial. Agricultural produce cannot be marketed as 100 percent organic until it and the soil on which it has been grown have been certified free of chemical fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides.

During the three-year transitional period, Capital Rice offers a slightly increased price to farmers who have joined the scheme. One such, Chon Huan-arom from Sri Jom-jaeng, said he was given an additional 0.10 baht for every kilogramme produced in the first year after the switch, and 0.20 baht in the subsequent years. At the moment, the company pays about 20 percent above the market rate for jasmine rice that reaches its benchmark. Saksit, who acts as a coordinator for Capital Rice, said he was impressed by the firm's determination. His employer, Siam Chaiwiwat, unable to bear continuing losses, had to pull out a few years after investing in the cultivation stage of the scheme; it still remains a partner in the processing stage, however, operating from its mill in Chiang Mai. "Were they [Capital Rice] not that big," Saksit noted, "they would've given up long before now."

And, judging from the new line of products Capital Rice has in mind, the firm is also thinking big. According to Surachai Jongpipatchai, general manager of subsidiary Capital Trading, organic rice crackers, coconut milk, coffee, and shrimps have the potential to tap into a global market worth an estimated $30 billion (1.17 trillion baht). Diversification of commodities and markets are being planned in tandem, and Capital Rice executive Wanlop said the United States has just been added to the list of countries to which it exports.

Ironically, given all this activity, Thai consumers remain an elusive quarry. According to Wanlop, a member of the Thai Organic Alliance Society, the general mood isn't very positive. Most entrepreneurs, he said, have not been "successful" with regard to expanding their share of the local market. Promotional campaigns have been run but enthusiasm fizzled out soon afterwards. Wanlop speculates that confusion caused by the differing terms used to describe produce _ "organic", "pesticide-free" and "pesticide-safe" _ may have contributed to the lukewarm reception.

Vitoon Panyakul, of Green Net, agrees, adding that the proliferation of seemingly similar "green" products has made Thailand a very competitive market. "The problems have been chronic: Thai consumers want things good and cheap, while foreigners will also give weight to the quality of the goods and the services they receive."

At ground level, back in the paddy field of the North, fluctuations in the market do affect farmers like Karj and Chon but not in a drastic way. Some years they may not be able to get the price they want because "organic quotas" set by Capital Rice have been filled. Boondit Varinruk, an expert in organic-cultivation techniques at the Department of Agriculture, claims that growers already registered with Capital Rice continue to subscribe to the organic regime anyway. "There is hope that, next year, they might be able to sell all their rice through the organic channel," he said. "After all, the nature of jasmine rice is that it has a built-in threshold: there seems to be a limit to how much one can extract from each rai of land. The farmers usually get the same yield, with or without the additional input."

At present, the average yield reported for organic rice is 500 kilogrammes per rai, up from 300 to 400 kgs during the early years of the scheme. The past decade has been a period of trial and error _ for both the growers themselves and advocates of organic farming. Saksit concedes that, given the training he received in agricultural science, he was initially doubtful about the no-chemical approach. "The organic methods go completely against what I'd been taught before," he said, "but now we can say with full confidence that it's do-able."

But will it be sustainable in the long run, particularly considering the large scale of production and the resources required? What will happen if, some years from now, organic farmers are not able to get as good a price for their produce as they are getting at present? Isn't the monoculture of rice, even rice that is grown organically, a mere notch up from the capital-intensive plantations promoted by the Green Revolution technologists? Interestingly, Vitoon of Green Net points out that there is huge, albeit not widely acknowledged, diversity in a single organic-rice field. It might appear that there is only one crop there, he says, but look more closely and you'll discern a myriad of life-forms _ fish, insects, worms, butterflies. And even if only jasmine rice is planted, Vitoon continued, the genetics of the varieties themselves are truly rich and worth further study.

Chon, the rice farmer from Chiang Rai, readily confirms this. Walk 100 metres or so into one of his fields, he said, and you'll see numerous spider webs _ a sign that natural predators are flourishing there. There are now plenty of fish to be caught in flooded paddy fields in his locality too, and the children from his village are able to earn pocket money from collecting apple snails, an essential ingredient in the liquid compost made and distributed by his Sri Jom-jaeng group.

Of course, he and his neighbours have had bad years too, mostly because their crops were attacked by bua (gall midges) but, Chon insists, "we've never reached a crisis point". At any rate, rule number one is that one "should not destroy anything"; accept what nature gives, good or bad, and the (ecological) system will take care of itself, he said.

So how did he come to this quiet realisation? In a word ... experience. It is common for Thai farmers to seek work in urban areas in the slack period between harvesting one crop and planting the next. Until six years ago Chon would do the same; he'd head down to Bangkok and stay there for three to four months working on construction sites. But he found that much of the money he earned was eaten up by the cost of living in the city.

While staying put in the village means he now has less cash in his pocket, he and his whole family can get by on, say, 20 baht a day. For one thing, in addition to jasmine rice he also raises a glutinous version for personal consumption. Eating rice from elsewhere is not as good, he says, nor as tasty as what we "have grown ourselves".