With climate change so rampant on every nation’s soil, adaptation is a key to sustaining our livelihoods. So it’s great to hear stories like the one in the Bangkok Post regarding Israel’s agricultural technology transfer in Thailand.
In Phetchaburi’s Cha-am district, the Hubkrapong project has been creating subsistence for local families since 1964. “Hubkrapong has been an ongoing Thai-Israel cooperation project…where agricultural officials from Thailand have taken turns receiving training on many related issues including irrigation and farming in a desert-like landscape [and] has helped transfer Israeli technology to Thailand,” according to the Bangkok Post.
Israeli agricultural expert, Itzhak Abt, visited the cooperative this past week to present a gift of 120 pomegranate trees and encourage the local farmers to thing big. While the project has achieved local sustainability in its ability to feed the families that work the fields, Mr. Abt thinks there is plenty of output achievable through Hubkrapong, so much that Thai farmers there could actually be producing enough crops to sell the excess on the open market.
Additional food crops injected into the open market would clearly be a positive step in heading off even higher prices of certain stocks like soy and rice. But caution should be exercised to avoid overtilling of the soils as has been exhibited by many of Thailand main rice producers.
In order to cash in on the high rice prices, many Thai farmers injected a third growing season into the year, where typically there are only two seasons. The additional season means further usage of water resources which could even threaten to cause drought during Thailand’s dry season.
Naturally, large food supplies are good because it means there is enough to feed the mouths of the many. But when we sacrifice other essential resources, such as water, in order to grow that excess food, we need to ask ourselves if our actions are necessary and whether they are sustainable. Only with such an ecological approach can we gravitate towards the best solution for the majority.
