SRI Research Experience in Thailand by Dr. Monamorn Preecharattana

Dr. Monamorn is a university lecturer during the week and farmer on the weekend, which has led her to open a social media page: “A Farmer Trainee”. In spite of her daytime profession as a physics lecturer at Mahidol University, she practices SRI on Saturdays and Sundays on her rice paddies in Udonthani, a northeastern province of Thailand. She also has experimental plots in Nakornpatom province near Bangkok. Dr. Monamorn represents a new generation of farmers whose concerns include food security, which has led her to try SRI techniques under difficult farming conditions. She continues to keep learning and practicing. Some of Dr. Monamorn’s findings from her SRI experiment were shared with the workshop audience, including considerations about modern technology versus local wisdom. She shared that while using a machine to make ridges along the paddy is faster than using manpower, it doesn’t retain water in the paddy as well as the traditional way, which required more manpower and was slower, but traditionally retains water much better.