With his thick and coarse fingers, the pen looks too small and out of place in Eiam Sompeng's hand. The shape of his hands and fingers confirm that he is a farmer, through and through.
Eiam Sompeng.
Born in Yasothon province 65 years ago, Eiam has been farming rice since he was young. Like many farmers in Thailand, his education background was brief _ "I graduated Prathom 4. Period."
However, the way the old farmer inscribes temperature and humidity data exudes the air of a man of learning. His pen adds to the graph of precipitation that has been carefully jotted down in his notebook. Eiam is not a man of letters, and not a man of many words. Yet the marks he makes are well organised and systematic. The notebook is full of weekly, monthly and annual weather data for his village.
"I am the kind of guy who needs to know the depth and breadth of the thing I am involved with," said Eiam. "I hate it when people ask me and I feel that I know nothing."
Eiam, who was runner-up in the Outstanding Rice Farmer Award from the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives last year, has recorded weather data for 20 years after joining the Earth Net Foundation's organic farming project. ENF has been promoting organic farming and sustainable agriculture in Chiang Mai and Yasothon provinces. Before this he, like many other farmers, used gallons of pesticides.
"Pesticides make me sick and sometimes put me in debt. So I quit and tried organic rice farming," he said.
Uncle Eiam, as he is known among villagers, said since joining the project he has practised only organic farming and has never looked back.
Under the scheme, farmers give up using chemicals, undertake small-scale rice farming and plant more trees to create ecological biodiversity. The biodiversity in turn results in other plants and food for farmers to consume and sell.
Despite being a grandfather, Eiam is keen to call himself a "modern farmer" who tries to combine local wisdom with the latest science.
"People looked at me and thought I am a bit crazy when they saw my notebooks. But it is better if we keep a record," he said.
Archiving weather data has never been in the nature of Thai farmers. Peasants _ known as the backbone of the country, accounting for 70% of the population _ usually follow traditional knowledge and rely on their experiences and memories.
To predict the weather, farmers usually observe signs from nature.
Eiam has gone about his work differently to his peers, and lately his records have been put to good use. Uncle Eiam is one of 15 farmers who help record weather data for the Community Weather Forecast Centre (CWFC), the first of its kind in Thailand.
"Most farmers just draw knowledge from their memories. They will do the same thing they did last year and in previous years. They will do the things that they were taught by the previous generation of farmers."
But Uncle Eiam believes that traditional wisdom might not be enough when the weather becomes unpredictable and harsh. The province, one of five dubbed the poorest in the country, and local villagers rely heavily on jasmine, or hom mali, rice. Strangely enough, however, the province has become known as a major organic rice farming area and money is being made selling and exporting premium hom mali rice.
There is a joke about Yasothon jasmine rice that residents love to tell visitors. It goes that if Thai people want to eat Yasothon jasmine rice, they need to travel either to Yasothon or to Europe as most of it gets exported.
Despite the international demand, the the future of hom mali rice is not assured. Farming in Yasothon and other northeastern provinces depends on rainwater. Last year when the rain was delayed for a month, many farmers lost money. Modern farmers need to learn to hedge against risk, too.
"I do not put all my eggs in one basket," Eiam said.
His 27 rai of farmland looks like an orchard. He has dug a pond to raise fish, planted mango trees and other kinds of plants. When the rice harvest ends, Uncle Eiam and his wife make money selling fruit and vegetables. He also built a small wind turbine to help draw water into his land.
He reads and listens carefully to news about the weather and the environment. He checks his SMS regularly for forecasts from the project.
"I am learning to use a computer. I want to use Facebook and use the internet to get in contact with more people and get more information," he said. Eiam is not afraid young people will turn their backs on rice farming.
"Rice farmers refusing to change and adjust is more worrying."
