Suphan Buri Rice Farmers’ Cooperative: Special Meeting

All members are invited to a special meeting on Saturday 12 April at 9:00 at the cooperative hall. The meeting will focus on water-saving methods for the coming dry season, the irrigation office has warned may be one of the driest in ten years.

Khun Pranom from the district agricultural office will explain the alternate wetting and drying method. Ton Saengchan, a member who used the method last season, will share his results. His field produced more rice while about thirty per cent less water.

The cooperative is considering a shared drone and water gauges for members. Members who wish to use this equipment will be asked to keep simple records of water use and yields, the cooperative can measure the benefits.

you cannot attend, you may send a family member to vote on your behalf. Please bring your membership card. Lunch will be provided, so please tell the office by 8 April how many people .

Questions may be sent in advance to the cooperative office. We look forward to you there.

Why I Came Home to Farm · by Ton Saengchan

Two years ago, I had a good job as an engineer in Bangkok. I more in a month than my father earned from rice in a season. So when I told my family I was coming home to farm, they thought I had lost my mind.

My reason was simple. I had watched my father work harder every year less and less. Water was becoming scarcer, fertiliser was becoming more expensive, and young people were leaving the village. I believed that if farming did not change, there would soon be nobody to do it.

My first season was not easy. My neighbours laughed when I let my fields dry out on purpose. My father barely spoke to me for a month. But I kept careful records, and at harvest the numbers for themselves: more rice, a third less water and lower costs.

The most important lesson, , was not about technology. It was about knowledge. My drone could tell me where the rice was weak, but only my father knew why. He knew which fields drain fastest, which flood first and how the soil changes after heavy rain. Without that knowledge, my tools far less useful.

Now my father and I are planning a training group for young farmers. Farming will only have a future if young people see it as a career respect, not a last choice. I hope that one day my sister to study agriculture and come home too.

Young Farmers’ Training Group · Suphan Buri

Are you aged 18–35? Are you interested in farming but not sure where to start? Join our free six-month training group.

Who runs it? Ton Saengchan (engineer and rice farmer) and Somchai Saengchan (rice farmer for over thirty years), with support from the district agricultural office.

What will you learn? Water-saving methods, soil testing, using drones and sensors, keeping farm records, selling directly to buyers, and traditional knowledge of local fields and weather.

When? Every second Saturday, 8:00–12:00, from June to November. Sessions are held in the field, so wear clothes that can get muddy.

How to join: Places are limited to 20 people. Priority will be given to applicants from farming families in Suphan Buri. Apply by phone or at the cooperative office before 20 May.

Letting the Fields Breathe

Rice feeds more than half the world’s population, but growing it has a hidden cost. When paddy fields stay flooded for months, bacteria in the waterlogged soil produce methane, a greenhouse gas many times more powerful than carbon dioxide over a period of decades. Rice farming is responsible for a significant share of the methane released by human activity.

For centuries, farmers have kept their fields continuously flooded, partly because standing water stops weeds from growing. However, scientists have found that rice does not need to stand in water all the time. A method called alternate wetting and drying (AWD) allows fields to dry out for several days at a time before they are flooded again. Farmers use a simple plastic tube pushed into the soil to check the water level below the surface.

Studies in several Asian countries have found that AWD can reduce water use by around a quarter to a third without lowering yields, and in some cases yields increase. Because the soil is exposed to air regularly, methane emissions also fall sharply.

Yet the method has not spread as quickly as experts hoped. Farmers need training and must check their fields regularly. Where irrigation is shared, one farmer cannot easily dry a field if neighbours keep theirs flooded. And when water is cheap or free, there is little financial reason to save it.

Supporters argue that AWD shows how climate solutions and farmers’ interests can go together. Saving water, cutting costs and reducing emissions at the same time is a rare combination.

Personal Statement: Faculty of Agriculture · by Kaew Saengchan

When I was younger, I thought farming was something people did when they had no other choice. My parents worked from dawn until dark, and every year they seemed to earn a little less. I planned to leave our village and never come back.

My brother changed my mind, though not in the way he intended. When he left his engineering job to run our family farm, I thought he had made a terrible mistake. Then I started helping him keep records. I measured water levels, counted fertiliser bags and entered harvest figures into a spreadsheet. For the first time, I saw farming as something that could be studied, tested and improved.

What fascinated me most was not the drone or the sensors. It was watching my father and brother learn from each other. My brother brought data; my father brought thirty years of observation. Together they made better decisions than either could have made alone.

I want to study agricultural science because I believe the future of farming depends on combining these two kinds of knowledge. I hope to research water-saving methods that small farmers can afford, and to find ways of recording the knowledge of older farmers before it is lost.

I do not know yet whether I will become a farmer myself. But I know that I will spend my life working for the people who grow our food.