The rainfed farming systems research in Northeast Thailand: a ten-year experience
Charoenwatana, T.
Farming Systems Research Paper Series, Kansas State University 9: 216-243
1986
Document Number: 413608
This paper describes the research works on rainfed agriculture in Thailand, undertaken at the Faculty of Agriculture, Khon Kaen University. The report covers research activities of two projects: (1) the Rainfed Cropping Systems Project started in 1975 with financial support from the Ford Foundation; and (2) the Integrated Rainfed Farming Systems Research Project initiated in 1984 with financial assistance from USAID. The first project placed emphasis on small farmers and views their farms as a system. An interdisciplinary research team of social and biological scientists was formed. Interdisciplinary approaches were used to improve the cross-disciplinary knowledge of the team. Human ecology provided the team with a variety of concepts and theories both in natural and social sciences and linkages between these two systems of sciences. The second project focused on the small farmers who have very limited resources, aiming to increase farmers' income through crop intensification. Several potential cropping systems utilizing the full use of the whole growing season were developed. The testing procedure was modified from the conventional approach in order to meet the urgent need of agricultural development of the Northeast.