Fertilising change

Her house looks simple, a rural-style home with an elevated floor located in Suphan Buri. On the ground she has a small nursery for growing various organic vegetables and a corner for her stock of rice. The house is not far from her family's paddy, a small 8 rai plot that she has converted from a conventional farm to organic rice farm.

Kanokporn Diskrajun, 39, is the face of a new generation of Thai farmers. She has grown rice without using chemicals for a decade, and is the president of U-Thong Farmers Promotion Group and co-founder of Thung Thong Yangyeun Community Enterprise for organic farmers in Suphan Buri, the central province known for its vast expanse of yellow-green paddies. Through her farming principles, she has helped dozens of families to clear their debts and save their farmland.

The mother-of-two is a role model for her neighbours. She shares her knowledge and helps other farmers, not only in her Tan Luk On community in U-Thong district in Suphan Buri, but those in other provinces who believe in using non-chemical products for agricultural activities.

"The hardest part is to change the old perception of farmers. Many of us do not want to try growing rice without using chemicals because they believe the yields will not be as high as previously," she said.

This is the dilemma of Thai farmers -- high yields, environmental concern, income and sustainability -- these factors can run at odds against each other. In the past, Kanokporn's parents grew rice only once a year and without the use of any chemical fertilisers and pesticides.

"Our rice crops were tall and we had enough rice to consume all year round. But when I grew up, my parents grew rice twice a year as the government promoted new rice breeding to farmers to grow more rice for the market. Field officers recommended farmers use chemical fertilisers and pesticides for higher yields. Many farmers earned more, but they had to invest a lot in those chemical products," she said.

With years-long exposure to the chemicals, her parents got sick.

She resigned from a factory job in Ayutthaya and returned home in 2005 to care for her father. A year later, her father passed away from cancer while her mother was also diagnosed with breast cancer. Kanokporn then decided to stay at home and become a full-time farmer.

Being afraid of getting sick because of the chemical fertilisers and pesticides, she looked for an alternative. She attended an intensive five-day course at the Khao Khwan Foundation, a non-government organisation that promotes chemical-free farming in Suphan Buri.

She started growing rice by following organic principles in February 2006.

"I had a big fight with my mother because she was afraid that the yield would be low. But I felt it was something I must do," she said.

After four months, it was time for harvesting. The yield dropped by a half.

"It was predictable because I didn't have organic rice seeds. The soil was not fertile. I knew I had to give it another try," she said.

She kept at it. She selected some healthy seeds and planted them in the organic nursery. Out of 100 crops, about 20 plants had longer roots and higher yields than others. Those seeds were used for the next season of farming.

"People said I was crazy because I did something different from my neighbours. Many farmers believed that I did not know what I was doing. They even bet that my family would not have enough rice to eat during that season," she said.

Regardless of what others said, Kanokporn believed she was on the right track. With the organic seeds, she could harvest 700-1,000kg of rice.

The knowledge and expertise of Khao Khwan Foundation has helped her keep going. During the first couple of years, she also put her focus on improving the quality of soil.

"As a farmer, we have always been told by government officers to burn rice straw in order to kill germs in our rice paddies. Burning dried stalks also makes it easy for a farmer to prepare soil for ploughing with a tractor. But in fact, rice straw has all the 16 types of nutrition that rice crops need. This is unlike chemical fertilisers, they have only three core nutrients, including nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium," she said.

In addition, burning dried stalks does not kill any rice diseases because the plants come with pests. After harvesting rice, those bugs are also gone.

"If a farmer knows how to turn rice straw to fertiliser, they can save a lot of money used for buying chemical fertilisers. What they need is accurate knowledge from real rice experts, not from field officers who do not have proper knowledge about growing rice," she said.

For her farmland, she applies bio-fertiliser to decompose dried stalks. Within 15 days, the rice straw is decayed and the land ready for ploughing.

Through this method, the soil has gradually improved. After three years, she does not need to add pig manure, an organic fertiliser, to the soil. Her land has slugs, snails, earthworms, spiders and dragonflies. They help control bugs such as rice mealy bugs and brown plant hoppers.

"When the outbreak of brown plant hoppers came in 2009, my farmland did not sustain much damage because of our natural system, while farmland with heavy use of pesticides couldn't keep the bugs away. They couldn't harvest any rice," she said.

She set a sample of a natural control system for her neighbours. Soon, her relatives and some neighbours followed her advice.

From a newbie farmer whom nobody believed in, she became president of U-Thong Farmers Promotion Group, and Kanokporn has made it a policy that group members must grow rice in an organic way.

The U-Thong Farmers Promotion Group was founded in 2003 by her parents and farmers in various communities in Suphan Buri who had a large amount of debt and wanted to reduce the interest rate, up to 20% charged by government banks, and to clear the bills by transferring their loans to the Farmers' Reconstruction and Development Fund.

The farmers needed help from those who understood the legal process. Graduating with a high school diploma, Kanokporn has played the role since the beginning of the group. After her father who was the group president passed away, she was selected as the new president in 2006.

In 2010, Kanokporn asked every member to attend the organic farming course at Khao Khwan Foundation. So far, 76 of the members are no longer in debt and four will finish payments soon.

"If farmers do not stop growing rice by using chemicals, they will not be able to get out of the debt loop," she said.

Based on her experiences when working on field research with the BioThai Foundation, an NGO which supports food safety and sustainable agriculture, she found out that farmers spend about 8,700 baht per rai for chemical fertilisers and pesticides. Farmers who grow rice organically invest not more than 2,500 baht per rai.

Those who use chemicals in their farms also need to pay for medical bills. For some farmers who rent land for growing rice, they will pay 2,500 baht more per rai. The total cost of chemical farming excluding existing debts and daily spending is more than 12,000 baht per rai.

"If the government really wants to help farmers, they must help them reduce the costs, not lure them with money," she said.

Kanokporn also helps farmers negotiate with creditors or file cases in court to help them keep their lands, despite the fact that she didn't complete law school.

"I had to read and reread stacks of legal papers," she said, adding that she has helped hundreds of farmers in legal cases.

Kanokporn also initiated at least two community organic rice enterprises. One of them, Thung Thong Yangyeun, is still active. She also helps promote organic farms in other provinces through the works of the Network of Moral Rice project of the Dhamma Ruamjai Foundation and the Cooperative Academic Institution of Kasetsart University.

Today, organic rice of U-Thong Farmer Promotion Group is certified by the Participatory Guarantee System, a locally-based quality assurance system that acts as an alternative to third-party organic certification and Good Agricultural Practice. Their rice is available through Pook Pinto Kao, which is a non-profit group that acts as a matchmaker between customers in the cities and organic rice farmers and under a housebrand of Lemon Farm supermarkets. Two hotels in Songkhla are also regular customers.

Kanokporn also has another ambition. She grows organic vegetables and encourages members of her group and Thung Thong Yangyeun Community Enterprise to follow suit. She plans to supply organic vegetables directly to restaurants. So far about 10 restaurants in Suphan Buri have expressed an interest.

Her ambitious goal is to establish a federation of consumers and organic farmers of Suphan Buri. The aim is to supply organic rice, vegetables and fruits directly to consumers.

It's the model she learnt when she was chosen to join a field trip to Japan.

"I am very proud that I have walked this far. Because of the organic rice farm, I can build our house without a need for a loan. I can send my two sons to school. I'm not rich and have enough to live and to travel around to help other farmers who are still in need," she noted.

2003: U-Thong Farmer Promotion Group was established by the parents of Kanokporn Diskrajun.

2006: Kanokporn was named president of the group. She started growing rice in an organic way after attending a course at Khwan Khao Foundation.

2006-2009: Used organic fertilisers for her rice paddy.

2009: U-Thong Farmer Promotion Group joined the networks of other farmers, including the National Farmers Council, to ask the government to help reduce debts for farmers.

2010: About 80 members of U-Thong Farmer Promotion Group agreed to stop using chemical fertilisers and pesticides and grow rice in an organic way.

2011: The year of the big flood. After the flood, the group asked for a 480,000 baht loan from the Farmers' Reconstruction and Development Fund to invest in rice mills and a machine to produce dried pig manure. The group started marketing their own brand.

2013: Thung Thong Yangyeun Community Enterprise was established to promote organic farming in Suphan Buri.

Present: The group joined hands with the Network of Moral Rice project to promote organic rice farming in Prachuap Phiki Khan, Phetchaburi, Phatthalung, Songkhla and Prachin Buri.