SMALL FARMERS URGED TO AVOID TAKING BIG RISKS

       Tongchai Kongkalai is training farmers at his Nakhon Nayok learning centre about the need to adopt self-sufficiency principles set down by His Majesty the King.
       "During this time of great economic crisis, we need to learn from past mistakes. The most dangerous thing farmers can do is go deep into debt."
       "No one told me about such troubles. But I had followed the advice given by big firms telling me to over invested on a single cash crop."
       "That's set me back by more than Bt10 million," he says. Even after paying off monthly to the banks the past five years, Im still in debt?"
       "No one tells you to start small or adopt measures to safeguard land," he says. "When a farmer loses his land, he loses everything, which is what many corporations want."
       The proverb: To enslave people, one must first make them dependent,- rings true in the marketplace where monopoly is the end game for many big organisations.
       "I tell farmers to be wary of corporations and government agencies that unwittingly act on their behest."
       At times Tongchai seems to be mouthing ideas that belong to the far left, one observer at the centre notes.
       "But he's just endoring what many Western scientists are now openly advocating in public," he adds.
       From the terrible mistakes of focusing on just one type of potato crop, farmers were reduced to being pawns of a large supply chain.
       The scheme puts them at the mercy of pesticide producers to combat the diseases that befall these selected crops.
       If they had diversified and planted other potato species, the BBC says recently in a documentary, farmers could have better endured such a crisis.
       Corporations such as Monsanto had shown in past years that its genetically modified rice is aimed at helping themselves first.
       Where Indian rice planters reacted angrily to a ploy that would make them forever dependant on the rice seeds that do not replicate, the danger of overly trusting big business becomes abundantly clear.
       Moral and ethical issues are at the core of Tongchai's approach.
       "Wise farmers would do well to avoid using methods recommended by big suppliers such as investing too much in buying land.
       The more one grows, the more chemicals and fertilisers these suppliers can sell, he says.
       This cycle of induced poverty has been repeated the past many decades, he says. "It's time to stop listening to them and start thinking for ourselves."
       The more economical way to farm is to grow the most natural crops such as rice and fruits.
       "Local crops do not carry the tariffs imposed on foreign imports."
       "The key is to diversify, grow many items and weather periods of poor prices for certain goods.
       "Just one rai of farm land is sufficient to start with.
       "Farmers need not borrow so much money. They should only expand after their icomes grow.
       "My troubles started when I took out a loan for Bt10 million.
       "If someone had told me about the risks, I would have started small and be a rich man today.
       "In rhe first two years, my income was quite good. In the third year, prices collapsed."
       "I now tell others not to be so follish. Also they should raise domestic species and not imported types.
       "Imported hogs need air-conditioning," he explains.
       "The cost of the air conditioners as well as 24-hour electricity charges will put many in the poor house," he warns.
       Tongchai is taking part in a government plan to assist poor farmers using the self-sufficiency programme.
       The scheme aims to help 80,000 communities.
       So far 20,000 applications have qualified for funding.
       Each will receive several hundred thousand baht, depending on their respective scale.
       The scheme has a budget for Bt20-billion.