KHON KAEN, 25 July 2008 (IRIN) - King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand has for years said buffaloes were integral to a sustainable agricultural policy and since 2000, Thai NGOs, with the UN Development Programme's (UNDP) Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme, have been working with farm groups to boost output and cut back on chemical fertilisers and pesticides. The buffalo has been crucial to that strategy.

From 2000, the programme began donating buffaloes to 11 different communities throughout Thailand. In batches of 10 to 27, they have over time led to sizeable numbers of offspring on farms throughout the country.

However, one project it supported - the Phu Tham Kratee Communal Forest Project in Khon Kaen Province, northeast Thailand - demonstrates that shifting away from modern mechanised agriculture to more traditional farming, including the use of buffaloes for ploughing and manure, is no simple task.

Phu Tham Kratee includes 11 villages in Waeng Noi District. Its coordinator, Pichan Tippawong, told IRIN, "In 2000, the Small Grants Programme gave the community two female buffaloes [which subsequently were bred] and the 30 families in the revitalisation programme now have additional buffaloes."

However, with the rising numbers of buffaloes a problem emerged. "It is very hard to raise buffalo here as it is dry land," Noohtian Kerdsak, a local farmer, told IRIN. "We needed to protect the forest land so there is sufficient fodder for grazing the buffaloes and cattle."

The widespread use of tractors in the area had led to the excessive clearing of forest land for farming, including a 2,800 rai (448 hectare) section in Waeng Noi District. The Phu Tham Kratee community group approached the GEF Small Grants Programme for assistance in reforesting that land.

Pichan told IRIN that the buffaloes needed sufficient grazing area and fodder, particularly in the driest months of August to October. The programme provided 260,000 baht (US$8,000) to reforest the area so the community's 30 buffalo and 2,076 cattle now have adequate grazing land.

Sustainable energy practices

In another project, a local NGO, the Chee River Basin Initiative, is helping the People's Network Group of Chee River, which consists of 200 farm families in Ban Pai District, Khon Kaen Province, to develop sustainable energy practices.

Fifty families in the village have buffaloes. "We keep 270 in all," said the head of the People's Network, Supan Udom, "using the manure in the rice fields and selling the excess for 15 baht [45 cents] per 10kg sack. In the past some farmers used as many as 10 sacks of fertiliser per 10 rai [1.6 hectares] of rice fields, but now they use only two sacks per 10 rai." Supan, like many of the farmers in the village, uses no chemical fertilisers on his fields.

Yai Krueysawat, another leader of the community project, told IRIN, "Perhaps 30 percent of the nation's farmers are like us. We have buffaloes to plough, to sell and to use for manure," he said. "It's the other 70 percent of small-scale farmers who are facing the hard times, dependent almost exclusively on tractors, high-priced fuel and chemical fertilisers."

In an effort to further reduce their use of high-priced inputs, the Chee River Basin Initiative is helping the villagers form a group to produce manure from cattle and buffaloes as well as compost from rice and corn husks and leaves. The objective, said Jaroonpit Jantasri, a consultant for the initiative, is to enable the entire village to reduce its use of energy and particularly of harmful and expensive chemical fertilisers.

Multiplying investment

The GEF programme gave the greatest number of buffaloes, 27 in 2003, to a group of 50 poor families who were being permanently resettled after being displaced from land that had been flooded when a dam was built in Nampong District, Khon Kaen Province.

Known as the Community Economy Revitalisation Villagers' Group, the families now have 35 buffaloes for ploughing their rice, cassava and sugarcane fields.

"We can't afford new tractors," said Nataporn Saeng Po, a leader of the group. "Here they are 72,000 baht [$2,150], not counting fuel costs, while a large buffalo is only 25,000 baht [$746]," she said, "and unlike the tractor, if you invest in buffaloes, they multiply."

As a group, over the past year, the 50 families have reduced by half the amount of chemical fertiliser they use, Nataporn said. "And things are getting better because we now hire out the buffaloes at 150 baht [$4.50] per rai, so we can earn about 400 baht [$11.25] per day."

Sawaang Buajaan, one of the leaders of the Community Economy Revitalisation Villagers' Group, praised the buffalo donation programme but added, "It needed follow-up … We needed help to build ponds in which buffaloes could wallow and cool down after ploughing, particularly in the dry months, and a reforestation effort so the livestock have a place to graze." Topping Sawaang's wish list: "We need help in developing a sustainable, integrated, farming system – one that includes fruit trees, grassland and vegetable plots."

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