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Yodda, Sujitra
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Agriculture, Biological Sciences & Forestry Environmental Science Social Sciences

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Use of Organic Materials to Maintain Soil Quality by Thai-Lao Rice Farmers in Northeast Thailand Yodda, Sujitra; Laohasiriwong, Suwit; Rambo, A. Terry
Forest and Society Vol. 5 No. 2 (2021): NOVEMBER
Publisher : Forestry Faculty, Universitas Hasanuddin

Show Abstract | Download Original | Original Source | Check in Google Scholar | DOI: 10.24259/fs.v5i2.14044

Abstract

Maintaining soil quality is a major problem for traditional farmers in the tropics. Many rely on organic amendments to enhance the productivity of their fields. However, indigenous knowledge about soil organic matter (SOM) and its management has received relatively little attention from researchers. This paper describes the use of organic materials to maintain soil quality by Thai-Lao farmers in a rice-growing village in Northeast Thailand. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve farmers to: 1) identify the indicators of soil fertility they employed; 2) inventory the organic materials they used; 3) determine changes in the use of amendments over time; and 4) understand their concept of SOM. They used many physical and biological indicators of soil quality. They used nine different organic materials:  rice straw and stubble, cattle, buffalo and pig manure, rice husks, sunn hemp plants as green manure, charcoal, commercial compost, homemade compost, and tree leaf litter. Recently, use of livestock manure, rice husks, charcoal, and leaf litter has declined because of supply shortages. They do not appear to have a general concept of organic matter nor is there a commonly used word for “organic” in their language. Most of the farmers would use larger quantities of organic amendments but are constrained by their scarcity and high cost. Ways to increase local supplies of organic materials must be found if the government’s efforts to encourage the adoption of organic agriculture are to be successful.
Soil mapping by farmers in a Thai-Lao village in Northeast Thailand: A test of an ethnopedological research method Yodda, Sujitra; Laohasiriwong, Suwit; Rambo, Terry
Forest and Society Vol. 6 No. 2 (2022): NOVEMBER
Publisher : Forestry Faculty, Universitas Hasanuddin

Show Abstract | Download Original | Original Source | Check in Google Scholar | DOI: 10.24259/fs.v6i2.21887

Abstract

Having farmers draw soil maps of their communities has been frequently advocated as a faster, cheaper alternative to scientific soil surveying in developing countries. However, research on the extent to which farmers share common mental soil maps and the extent to which these match scientific maps is lacking. In this study, 11 Thai-Lao farmers were individually asked to draw maps showing the location of different types of soil in their village, and two groups of four farmers each were assembled to draw soil maps collectively. The maps were very different from each other and the extent to which they matched scientific categorizations of village soils was low. The maps of the individual farmers depicted two to five types of soil occupying two to seven zones. The map of one group depicted two types of soil in two zones, while the map of the other group depicted four types of soil in seven zones. When the soil zones on the maps drawn by the individual farmers were compared with scientific categorization of the soils at 26 sampling points, agreement was low, with an average of 11.6 full and partial matches. The performance of the group maps was not necessarily better: One group map had no full matches and only five partial matches while the other group map had 19 full and partial matches. In view of this heterogeneity in the soil knowledge of community members, ways must be found to identify the most knowledgeable farmers to draw the maps if farmer soil mapping is to be a useful research tool. This study found that the maps drawn by individuals who have had worked as hired laborers on plots in many parts of their village were generally more reliable than those drawn by farmers who had only worked on their own plots.
Co-Authors Laohasiriwong, Suwit Rambo, A. Terry Rambo, Terry