Questions/Answers

By the late 1970s the entire area of Northern Thailand was deforested and the soil was unable to retain water, which caused flooding in the city. The land had been broken by foreign companies’ destructive hard-wood logging and had entered into a vicious cycle which required human intervention. The former King Bhumibol Adulyadej initiated systems that retained water and eventually returned the area to virgin forest. Since solving this fundamental issue our work has expanded to cover many areas that can benefit the people by helping them to prosper in a sustainable and durable manner. We have produced more than 250 research papers and now run 23 courses that have educated over 200 000 local people. The work we do contributes strongly to at least 13 of the 17 SDGs. The ‘One-Stop=Service’ developed here helps citizens access government support with minimum bureaucracy and contributed to us being awarded an Outstanding Public service Award in 2014. Our outreach centres are now in all 17 provinces of Northern Thailand, increasing both awareness and accessibility. Our innovations are studied and tested using scientific methods and the results are designed to be understandable and implementable by all, including those with limited literacy skills. The materials we recommend come free or at low-cost and sustainability is at the core of our work. The techniques we have developed reduce and eliminate the need for chemical fertilizers and pesticides, for instance the use of safe moulds and fungi to deter pests. Our protocols have been copied throughout Thailand and to other countries. Our officers attend international conferences where our research is explained and made fully available to interested parties. We recently hosted the ASEAN +3 AMAF visit and were privileged to share our knowledge with Agriculture and Forestry Ministers for around a third of the world’s population.

The overall goal of Huai Hong Khrai is for rural development especially in remote areas for the most underprivileged for instance those without basic amenities such as electricity and fresh water in order that they have a better quality of life which is free from hardship while enabling them to become strong and self-reliant. We have developed knowledge and technology designed to work together with the environment and natural resources. This research is designed to be applicable, easily understood and usable for ordinary people. Hard wood logging left behind a vicious cycle whereby barren aridity allowed forest fires to destroy new growth. Recovery would not have occurred without human intervention. The first stage was simply to retain water, which was achieved through the use of check dams. From this basic idea, (which was inspired by hill tribe culture), the area around the centre has been re-established as a lush, cool, moist, sustainable, bounteous model of what is possible when Humankind respects Nature. In thirty years Huai Hong Khrai has replaced the stale breath of lifelessness with the balanced harmony of prosperous sustainability in the hills of Northern Thailand and now we wish to share our knowledge with the world.

Building on the success we have had at re-establishing forest our centre now has twelve sections run by experts including many PhDs who are at the forefront of their fields. We have produced 250+ research papers documenting best practice in the achievement of efficiency, yield and sustainability with the minimum use of chemicals. From these 250 research papers we have selected 23 that have been developed into protocols and training courses that are freely available to all and which may be easily understood and implemented by anyone including those lacking literacy skills. There are three major categories; agriculture, environment and water management. The most important of these is agriculture because if we do not give the villagers the skills they need to produce harvest they will quickly return to their unsustainable habits including those that contributed to the deforestation of the past. Our courses are now available across Northern Thailand from dozens of centres of expertise run by villagers themselves. Our entire reason for existence is to disseminate the knowledge we have with the poor and vulnerable folk who would benefit and we are constantly developing new ways in which to most effectively do that.

People are at the heart of what we do. Our efforts have increased the incomes of the surrounding villages by 600% in real terms. They now have a quality of existence and dignity they could not have dreamed of a generation ago. Their surroundings are blissful and bounteous and they have learned to allow the planet to help itself, to regenerate, to sustain and the villagers’ children will have opportunities they themselves were denied. Our constitution frees us from overt political control as we are duty-bound to share our knowledge with anyone who asks for it regardless of their relations with Thailand. For example we partner with the Myanmar military and train 400 soldiers annually in agricultural techniques. Throughout a hostile conflict over borders, our mission succeeded in forging alliances and friendships where traditional diplomacy had fallen short. We are engaged in many partnerships locally, nationally, and internationally. For instance our dairy cattle development project in partnership with JICA – (Japanese International Cooperation Agency). We have also responded to the formal requests from the governments of Laos and Lesotho, partnering them to set up their own study centre network modelled on ours, using our protocols, and supported directly by our experts.

Although our service is and will remain open to anyone, the primary beneficiaries are intended to be those living in the most remote areas, vulnerable to climatic and man-made changes beyond their control. The training and support we offer gives them the technology, training and support necessary to increase their yield, find new crops and livestock, and to add value to that which they do produce. We have developed a system we call the ‘One-Stop-Service’. Essentially this means that we blend the support from more than a dozen government agencies and academic institutions and offer the people what they need without them needing to engage in costly and time consuming trawl through the bureaucracy of sprawling government. We do the partnerships and logistics so the people don’t have to. A specific issue is that Northern Thailand is a large and mountainous place. It is difficult for remote people to visit. So, training is no longer simply offered in our centre; we have established 35 community enterprises, and 110 micro centres in people’s homes throughout the 17 provinces of Northern Thailand that all operate under our ‘One-Stop-Service’ protocols. This expansion takes the services and support of government directly to people’s homes.

First we started with the 18 villages around our centre, but over time we have now trained almost 200 000 farmers in the techniques of sustainable and eco-friendly farming. Out of that number 110 were chosen to be Outstanding Farmers who we supported in the creation of a micro learning centre at their house. More than half of these leaders are Women and 30% are Elderly. 80% of them left school with the minimum scholastic requirement of Grade 6. Some of these people have now been honoured with an Agricultural Degree. We have established an affordable Pre-school centre for the children of our trainees so their parents can work without worry. The children are offered age-appropriate learning with a regular curriculum Not based on or biased in any way towards farming. We continue to support these medium and small sized enterprises and offer the initial seed and live stocks necessary to establish small holdings. We enable them to produce high quality products that are subject to market demand and this is part of the way they are empowered to raise themselves out of poverty.

Northern Thailand was devastated by hard-wood logging leaving the area with no virgin forest whatsoever. But those practices took so much more than teak and rosewood; their destructive methods also decimated local farming knowledge and culture. The region became prone to flooding as there was no longer an underground root system that could hold the sudden rush of water during rainy season. Such flooding washed away the nutritious topsoil necessary for new growth. We have now after 35 years re-established virgin forest in Northern Thailand with some expected, and some surprising side effects. Temperatures inside the reforested area are down 2 degrees, moisture content and organic topsoil levels are way up, nearly two hundred species of tree have now re-emerged, livestock thrive here and we are free from forest fires for over fifteen years. Withholding the water has reduced the incidence of flooding in the City 25km away and water sheds are more easily managed. The climate is better, farming is more natural & produces higher yields, water is less polluted, air pollution is significantly lower, resources are increasing where before they were depleting, and the area is more biodiverse. All of these improvements stem from water retention.

The very first innovation that began the rejuvenation of the area was borrowed from local hill-tribe wisdom. The ‘check dam’ is a simple, small dam typically made from materials easily obtained from the area such as rocks and bamboo. The Mong people had used this inspirational technique for generations when it was noticed and used in phase one of our centre. (The name in Thai is ‘Fai Mong’ reflecting the origin). Actually the Mong used this technique to store water for household use but the potential was studied, tested and measured by our scientists until best-practice protocols could be written and shared in training. Water retained in check dams; feeds new growth of virgin forest, prevents forest fires, reduces downstream flooding, limits organic topsoil runoff and has other benefits too. As best-practice in check dam technology was being established, other forms of irrigation were tested too leading to the development of so-called ‘fish-bone irrigation’ that is particularly effective when used alongside check dams. Check dam proven and simplified protocols were formed the basis of training course number 1 which has now been continuously running for more than 15 years.

Construction of check dams is largely from materials found naturally occurring in the forest and therefore they usually have low requirement for new materials. Occasionally slightly more permanent dams are constructed using bricks and mortar etc but even in these cases the dams are relatively small and inexpensive in terms of physical materials. Our 1388 hectares of land was previously thoroughly degraded and abandoned wasteland therefore we do not pay rent. Our biggest resource and financial outlay is by far is human, from the large staff of labourers, security and maintenance staff to the administration through to the select group of experts leading research and writing published thesis, our history has been one of mankind righting the wrongs of mankind. This success has not been free by any means and has required an exceptional commitment over the past 35 years to bear the fruits we enjoy today. Our theory is that the rejuvenation itself should provide the materials necessary for further rejuvenation. Therefore we have the approach ‘Three types of wood, Four benefits.’ These benefits are fruits, construction wood, and firewood. The fourth essential benefit is that the trees themselves retain the water and end the cycle of devastation.

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As previously mentioned it is part of our constitution that we share our protocols and practices with anyone that requests them. We regularly send delegations to overseas conferences where our work is made fully available to all attendees. Among other examples there are two stand-out instances where our work has been transferred completely to other nations. A delegation from Lesotho visited our centre in 1999 and was so impressed that they made a formal request for our assistance in setting up their own Development Study Centre based on ours. There is now a satellite centre set up within the country of Lesotho which is based on our protocols and was built with the assistance and support of our officials. That country previously struggled to feed its 2000000 people and was forced to import food which they could barely afford. The country of Laos made a similar request and again we provided all our support and expertise. They now have a network of development study centres originally based on ours and our officials and there’s remain in close contact sharing information as of course the topography of the two countries contains many similarities. We also assisted Timor-Leste, Bhutan, Nepal and Senegal.

Sustainability is at the very core of our work. Here in Northern Thailand we have experienced the effects of unsustainable farming practices. Having endured the hardships that come with such short-term approaches we have no desire to return to those circumstances. Once we had returned the area to a living breathing life-supporting area of plenty, we recognised that we must also retrain our people in the ways of sustainability. For instance local people had/have (the retraining is ongoing!) developed a false belief in the damaging practice of slash-and-burn farming. It is not easy to convince an old farmer that the ways they saw their parents and grandparents work are not correct, but slowly we are helping to change the culture. Real culture change demands real results from new methods, it is not the case that we issue one lecture and suddenly everything changes. Rather, we have had to address every stage of a farmer’s working life. Let us for a moment discuss one section of our work; rice production. We suggest the exact type of rice that will suit their topography. We provide seed that is pure and healthy, produced from our innovative practice of ‘Rice-Ratooning’ which dramatically increases yield. We provide moulds and fungi that are completely harmless to man, but which resist insects, cutting the expenditure and harm brought by pesticides. We assist in the formations of coops that can increase bargaining power raising revenue. We provide options for adding value to their crops such as protocols for producing healthy and value-increased germinated rice, and new and innovative ideas such as the production of rice ice cream. From soil to market, we support the farmers as they move into sustainability.

We celebrated our 35th birthday late last year. We will endure as long as there is recognition that what we are doing is impacting the planet and its people in the most positive way imaginable. As we have grown, we have adapted to the world around us, and as we have developed our core activities have changed accordingly. Observers now may look at our centre and think our main activity is disseminating knowledge but it was a full 20 years before we were ready to teach our first course. It is said that if you give a man rice you will feed him for a day. Here at Huai Hong Khrai, we teach villages the most modern rice planting, growing, harvesting, processing and packaging techniques decreasing workload and increasing yield growing the average rice farmers’ income by over 600% in real terms. This money is spread through the family and wider village community increasing educational, nutritional and travel opportunities for younger generations. Before many young people were lured to cities to engage in repetitive work such as driving taxis. Now in a sustainable way we increase the household income providing motivation for the next generations to continue the eco-friendly farmer tradition. And, as a matter of fact, we also give them rice; that is the strains of seed developed and grown under scientific conditions to be perfectly suited to the local environment producing the highest yield per hectare and containing the least impurities. Huai Hong Khrai has been radically empowering communities by providing them with the tools to help themselves for over 30 years, and with your support we will endure for many years to come.

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Yes we were subject to a formal evaluation in 2013/14. The Outstanding national Public Service awards were a formal evaluation of our ideas, implementation and delivery. This award is an initiative of the Thailand Government to improve and modernise Public Service delivery. They commissioned a research study on the quality of the public sector management and criteria for quality measurement were set as a Public Sector Management Quality Award: PMQA, a tool to increase performance and a guideline for self assessment. We self-assessed in 7 categories; Leadership, Strategic planning, Stakeholders and customers’ importance, Measurement, Evaluation and knowledge management, Human resource management, Process management and finally Result based management. Thailand’s public service traditionally has been run from a central command paradigm. We were examined to see if we had an open door policy to involve those related and the other sectors, in order to pave the way to a better quality service. Participatory management allows those involved to participate in the decision making process both directly and indirectly. The primary aim of this award is to serve the real needs of the citizens. We believed that we were providing a quality service according to the standard guidelines so we submitted.

We were the first centre in the country to implement the idea of the ‘One-Stop-Service’. The idea of this initiative was to emphasize the significance of unity and cooperation among different sectors in order to reduce bureaucracy and red tape. Previously agencies had tended to since they tend to work on their own. Some were very possessive with their work and some were still using the protocols and paradigms of a bygone era. Our pioneering approach transformed government agencies into unified group work, which was judged to yield the most benefit to the public. Our centre was credited with creating One Stop Service for Farmers and variations on this approach have now been rolled out throughout government as a country reforming strategy.

The Office for Public Sector Development Commission set up the Public Service Award to evaluate; responsiveness, result-based management, effectiveness and value for money, lessening unnecessary steps of work, reviewing mission to meet changing situation, providing convenient and favourable services, regular evaluation. According to their definition: The government agency shall empower, for quick service and lessening unnecessary steps of work, an official who is responsible directly for any task with the power to make an order, to deliver or give permission or approval, to carry out its duty or to do any matter whatsoever of official in specific position. The purpose of such empowerment is to make convenient and quick public service. Further evaluated was our establishment of the country’s first One-Stop Service Center (OSSC) so as to facilitate people in complying with laws or other rules. The people shall ask for information, permission or approval in a matter under power and duty of all department attached to the same Ministry by contacting official at the OSSC. We were proud to win the award.

Projects at Huai Hong Khrai are based on an the important principle that the people involved within the community should participate in decision-making from the start of and new development. This was termed the “explosion from within”. People whose life will be affected have to choose their own direction of development. Our project has been using “Public Hearings” for decades. The project and the expected results are discussed with the people in an open forum, and if they are willing, the group of beneficiaries and the group who will be making sacrifices are requested to agree among themselves then and there. Should agreement is reached, local leaders, from village and commune heads to district officers and provincial governor, are asked to acknowledge the agreement. They are also asked to take the initial steps required, such as settling problems of land ownership. Then we see that the correct agencies are asked to manage the administrative and technical sides of project operation until the project is completed. Partnerships are a well-established feature of our work and we have benefited from dozens of collaborations over the years. We partner with many Universities in Thailand including Thailand’s #1 ranked Chulalongkorn University. Last year The University of Kentucky sent their first intern in what will be annual placement. We are in partnership with the Japanese International Cooperation Agency on a dairy project. An international collaboration will soon see a 40m diameter radio telescope being built on our land. This development will also be home to an education centre. We were instrumental in the set-up of development centres in Lesotho and Laos and those countries saved a huge amount of time and expense . ASEAN +3 AMAF agreed to use our organisation as a model to develop their own paradigm in head watershed management in a sustainable way.

We have learned that our program for eco-friendly and sustainable farming knowledge-transfer is the most empowering of tools. When the people are strong and knowledgeable our centre improves. Therefore we came to realise that no-one can be left out including children with disabilities and those left orphaned by HIV. Both of these groups faced social rejection and the government set up a school for them. We volunteered to become involved and have empowered them with knowledge, such as the techniques to grow their own food, to ensure they can lead a life of dignity and purpose. A great success in these schools has been teaching Down’s Syndrome kids the techniques of frog farmering. Through these lessons they learn the importance of sustainable and eco-friendly farming techniques and the interaction stimulates them. The school that we set up and run is evidence of how we never stop learning, never stop innovating, never stop working for the betterment of the people. Thank you so much for taking the time to read about Huai Hong Khrai. We hope you know that you would be our most welcome guests anytime, we’d love to have you.