How sustainable agriculture can help Thailand cope with climate change

The weather factors would inflict damage on the economy in terms of productivity and quality, resulting in negative sentiment on people’s quality of life and economic growth, the research said, which throws the spotlight on sustainable agricultural practices.

Of the total losses, damage to Thai agriculture is estimated at 4.2 billion baht, especially from the impact of drought on rice harvests, sugarcane, cassava, corn and fruits, according to its analysis released in March this year.
Sustainable agriculture practice is likely a solution for Thailand to maintain food security and boost competitiveness in the global market, as well as cope with extreme weather events triggered by the El Nino phenomenon, according to experts.

The non-profit environmental campaign organisation Greenpeace Thailand told The Nation in an exclusive interview on Monday that El Nino was triggered by a rise in surface temperatures of the eastern Pacific Ocean, leading to a phase of planetary warming.

The natural phenomenon, which brings reduced rainfall to Southeast Asia and southern Australia, is expected to last until May or June next year, said country director Tara Buakamsri. After that, an increase in rainfall could occur due to La Nina, he added.

Ensuring agricultural diversity

Tara pointed out that Thai agriculture was vulnerable to El Nino due to the farmers’ reliance on weather conditions and government agencies’ failure to boost the sector’s resilience to extreme weather events.

“Thailand has fallen behind Vietnam in rice exports due to the Vietnamese government’s vision to boost the agriculture industry’s resilience,” he said, adding that Vietnamese rice had been developed to tolerate extreme weather events like floods.

To tackle these issues, Tara advised the government to promote agricultural diversity, focusing on crop rotation to sustainably maintain the ecosystem of each agricultural land.

He said smart agriculture solutions like drones and satellite images could be employed to boost crop yield, but he emphasised that local farmers should be allowed to determine which crops should be grown to maintain the ecosystem.

“Smart agriculture is a new trend, but I do not think technology alone can make agriculture sustainable,” he said. “We should support local farmers to ensure better income for them.”

According to the US Department of Agriculture, Vietnam is expected to produce 27 million tonnes of rice this year, up 0.2% year on year. Thailand, meanwhile, is expected to produce 20 million tonnes, down 4.4% year on year.

The Thai Rice Exporters Association told media outlet “Prachachat Turakij” in February that Vietnam had gained an edge in rice exports due to its cheaper price — US$655 (24,289 baht) per tonne compared to $690 (25,587 baht) of Thai rice.

More importantly, Vietnam enjoys more than double the rice yield, of 970 kilograms per rice plot, compared to Thailand’s 450 kilograms, the association added.

Sustainable rice cultivation

Thai rice is considered a victim of extreme weather events and greenhouse gas emissions have contributed to climate change. This is because rice cultivation emits greenhouse gas from three factors: Emissions from burning crops for preparing the plots, methane emission from water consumption, and carbon dioxide in the soil.

Several government and private agencies have sought new cultivation methods to boost crop yield, boost farmers’ income and mitigate impact on the environment. A joint research by Khon Kaen University and the United Nations showed that sustainable cultivation could solve the aforementioned issues, along with improving farmers’ quality of life.

Phumsith Mahasuweerachai, an associate professor at the university’s Faculty of Economics, explained on Wednesday that the research was conducted on three types of rice cultivation: Traditional practice using chemical fertilisers, pesticides and crop burning, organic practice with reliance on weather conditions, and sustainable practice using data to boost crop output and reduce environmental impact.

“Rice plays an important role in the Thai agriculture industry as rice plots cover 50% of total agriculture lands, especially in the Northeast and Central regions,” he said, adding that most Thai households were farmers.

He affirmed that sustainable practices could reduce production costs by 30-50% and greenhouse gas emissions by 50-60% compared to traditional and organic practices. They involve simple processes, such as looking for nutrition in the soil to see which fertiliser is suitable for cultivation, reducing water consumption to deal with methane emission, adopting ploughing instead of burning crops, and using pesticides with discretion.

If productivity increases, farmers could use part of the rice plots for growing other crops to diversify risk from declining rice prices, he said.

He noted that rice cultivation in the Northeast had almost reached sustainability, except for a few fixes. Farmers in the Northeast and Central have similar issues in sustainable cultivation, including soil nutrient management, reducing water consumption and avoiding crop burning, he explained.

Sustainable practices also meet international markets’ demand for high-quality rice and standards for low-emission crops, he said, adding that farmers could make more profit due to lower production cost compared to the cost of smart farming through the use of technologies like drones and agriculture support platforms.

More government support needed

Echoing Greenpeace, Phumsith said the government’s rice insurance programme that offers 10,000-15,000 baht per tonne enables farmers to survive despite facing loss, but their tendency to persist with traditional practices adversely affects productivity and impacts the environment.

He said the government should offer subsidies to encourage farmers to adopt sustainable practices to improve their quality of life in the long term.

“If we adopt sustainable practices, farmers would be able to generate profits from an increase in crop yield and a decrease in production cost. And government subsidies would no longer be necessary,” he said.

He also confirmed that there was demand for Thai rice in the international market even though Vietnamese rice was cheaper, thanks to consumers’ confidence in the quality of Thai rice.