Problem overview:
Integrating all stakeholders: The Agricultural Technology Transfer Centers (TTCs) brings together the government, both national and local, and the local people to meet and discuss so that problems can be shared and new ideas can be generated for a more sustainable plan for local agriculturing.
Training and educational initiatives: The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MAOC), Thailand, is trying to strengthen the capacity of farming and other local communities in Thailand, to enable these communities to manage themselves and manage their local environment through 'sustainable' agricultural plan making.
Background in summary:
Natural resources exploitation from unsustainable agriculturing: The natural resources in Thailand were exploited and depleted by commercialized and unsustainable agriculturing. The government has placed a high priority in addressing policies to solve these problems, one of which is decentralization and community participation in natural resources management and planning.
The Agricultural Technology Transfer Centers (TTC): project was formulated to develop one stop service centers for farmers and communities in the areas of agricultural development, agricultural production, market development, and natural resources management.
TTC mission - enhance the learning process for farmers: TTCs are to be established to accelerate farmer education, facilitate technology transfer and technological development, develop agricultural labor skills, and to continuously enhance the learning process for all farmers, with efficient and proper procedures, thus increasing their earnings and professional capacities.
Decentralization of power in laying agricultural plans: Through the TTC program, the government is decentralizing power to localities in the areas of preservation, maintenance, and balanced utilization of natural resources and biodiversity and, supporting of the assembling of farmers with a view to laying down agricultural plans and protecting their mutual interests.
Stakeholders' participation: Encourage agricultural and community leaders and local development organizations to participate in the analysis of problems, assess the capacity of the community, collaborate to formulate a plan for agricultural development and technology transfer in response to community needs. Officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MAOC) provide technical support during the planning process.
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Good practice rating:
(1 for the best, 5 for the lowest score) |
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Sustainability
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Efficiency
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| 2 |
 Improvement in either the environment of economic condition with no harm to the other. |
1 |
Cost efficient. |
| 2 |
Sustainable over time (not one-off) |
Process |
| Adaptability |
2 |
Participation of the community |
| 2 |
Location adaptability (can the project be done in other places?) |
2 |
Participation of resource owners/users |
| 3 |
Socio-cultural adaptability. |
2 |
Partnerships between various actors (Governments, NGO, Academia, Private) |
| 2 |
Level of development adaptability. |
2 |
Degree of coordination and cooperation between government departments. |
| 2 |
Style of government adaptability. |
3 |
Ability to attract political interest/support |
| 2 |
Degree of decentralization adaptability. |
2 |
Procedures for feedback and review. |
Comments on this example:
If this project also expects to expand to cover other fields such as food processing or industry, all of the related organizations (in this case is Ministry of Industry) should participate earlier in the planning process. With this way, other organizations will understand the concept and the implementation of the project clearly and will be able to cooperate together with MOAC effectively.
There are some training programmes in agriculture in Thailand, both from government sector and public institution. MOAC should also learn from the experiences of these institutions or may be it can share human resources from these institutions. Even though most of them are in form of training center, while TTC will try to encourage local community and local people to analyze the problems and solve them together with some technical support from MOAC officials, some objectives and duties of TTC and these institutions are overlapped.
Currently, there is Community Development Worker, under the control of Community Development Department, Ministry of Interior, who supports local people doing their activities. CD workers are not the direct knowledge provider, but they will help local people organize their activities. For example, if villagers want to know about the fertilization, CD worker can contact Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Ministry of Sciences Technology and Environment, and other NGOs to provide villagers the knowledge. TTC should also cooperate together with these CD workers, because they are much more familiar with local people and to avoid the overlapping responsibility.
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Sustainability of the project:
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The concept of the TTC is that the Ministry wants the TTC to be a mechanism for the Ministry to help build the capacity of local communities in being able to manage their economy and environment amongst themselves. Once their capacities have been strengthened, local communities should be able to continue with their lives, i.e. continue farming, and maintain the environmental condition at the same time.
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Adaptability of the project to other situations:
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| Process of decision making and implementation: |
Training and educational initiatives: One interesting aspect of the TTC is that the MAOC is trying to tailor-made each training course for every community or group because the Ministry believes that each area has different natural resources and geographical conditions, which will then give different opportunities and production options for each community or group. Through consultations with these communities/groups, the MAOC t tries to derive with a unique training programme that will serve the needs of each community/group in developing a sustainable agriculture and environment plan.
Integrating all stakeholders: The MAOC hopes that in the future it will receive cooperation from other Ministries so that the training programmes could be expanded beyond the resource of MAOC and so that the communities/groups be able to receive a more comprehensive training programme.
The TTC project is very cost-efficient. Each gathering is organized in a casual manner. Local community groups, members of the Ministry and District officials may summon at the Village Head's residence. Hence, no cost is incurred. Training sessions are given by ministry staffs that are local to the area, therefore, cost for sending staffs out to the field is unnecessary.
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Documentation: |
Literature or other written project review references
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Source of Information: |
Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives
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Contacts: |
Natural Resources and Biodiversity Institute
Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives
Rajadamnoen Nok Ave., Bangkok 10200
Tel: 66-2-6298971, 6298973
Fax: 66-2-2801555
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Submitted by: |
Mr Werachai Narkwiboonwong
Deputy Director of Natural Resources and Biodiversity Institute
Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives
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