Seeds of knowledge - http://www.bangkokpost.com/tech/technews/18628/seeds-of-knowledge

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Seeds of knowledge

Students in farming communities are learning how to use communication
networks to send crop information to farmers.

"I never imagined that we could measure the water sustenance, nor that
we could find the exact solution to how much fertilisers the plants
need, but here it's so fascinating to me," said Jannapa Saichauy, a
Matayom 3 student at Ban Klang School, Surat Thani.

At school, Jannapa and her friends have learned many new things
connected to growing crops, such as how to use an electrical
conductivity (EC) meter to gauge the nutrients in the water for
growing hydroponic vegetables. "This project is very helpful. Our
community can earn more income from hydroponic vegetables," she said,
noting that the vegetables they grow include lettuce, Chinese kale and
cabbage.

Achisa Mannak, a Matayom 4 student at Chachengsao's
Benjamaracharungsrit School, said that the use of a solar cell sprayer
had doubled the productivity of her community. It has also lowered
costs and saved energy.

Achisa, Jannapa and other students who are taking part in school
activities for youth farmers, initiated by the Agricultural Land
Reform Office (ALRO), have a chance to learn and create a knowledge
base themselves. Besides the traditional methods of their parents, the
children have learned new ways to help them improve crop productivity,
simply yet efficiently. They also have a key role in addressing
innovations for their communities.

The Youth ALRO Cyber Brain project is a significant mechanism in
making agricultural development more sustainable, capitalising on the
fact that children are the successors of their parents and they will
grow up to become a new generation farmers equipped with the knowledge
and technology to implement agricultural innovations in their
communities. The children thereby become the connection between the
farmers and IT utilisation, as well as a conduit between the farmers
and the schools.

"The idea behind this ALRO initiative is to make sustainable
agriculture a success. The interaction between homes and schools is a
must and thus it's better to mold them from childhood," said National
Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (Nectec) deputy director,
Dr Asanee Kawtrakul, who oversees the Smart Farm project, one of
Nectec's three flagships, along with Smart Health and Digitised
Thailand.

As a research body, Nectec provides technology and tools for the
community. However, in order to drive the Smart Farm more effectively,
they have conducted two mechanisms running together - the "Youth ALRO
Cyber Brain", which empowers the community through the collaboration
of homes and schools, and "Training for the Trainers" in which farmers
work with government officials.

Currently, there are 11 innovative projects that the children take a
major role in based on the collaboration between schools and
communities, and four of them have been awarded a place in the Youth
Farmers conference this year.

Students take part in a reporting course as one figures out how much
fertilisers the crop requires while the other takes notes to report to
the community.

Youth ALRO Cyber Brain encompasses key four functions that the
students can apply in real life, as young knowledge engineers, junior
reporters, young researchers and IT and knowledge service providers.
"The integration of these four curriculums encourages the children to
work for their communities," said Asanee, noting that the project has
applied the smart farm in real life, while Nectec has supported them
with the technology and know-how. The children have a chance to apply
up-to-date technology in the fields of IT, knowledge engineering,
communications and sensor technology to work for their communities.

The ultimate goal is to help farmers apply technology to lower
production costs while simultaneously gaining more productivity along
with improved quality.

A study by Kasetsart University found that Thailand imports 80 billion
baht worth of fertilisers a year. This indicates that farmers utilise
large quantities of fertiliser without adequate knowledge. On the
contrary, they should apply the fertilisers according to the
requirements of the soil. To this end the university has designed
"tailor-made fertilisers", giving the fertilisers at the appropriate
amount that the soil or the crops need. The university has run a trial
of this project for two years and the results show that they can save
10 billion baht on imported fertilisers.

While Kasetsart University will train the farmers to make tailor-made
fertilisers, Nectec will apply the knowledge and the experience of the
university. Meanwhile, they have applied communication-network
technology to link the farmers to the government agencies and schools
and store the knowledge of the fertilisers on computers.

Currently, the "Tailor-made Fertilisers Community" at Ban Bua-ngam,
Ubon Rachathani is one of five model communities in which farmers have
worked with local academic institutes, Kasetsart University, Nectec
and ALRO on the tailor-made fertilisers. They have applied the NPK
(nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) meter to measure the nutrition
level of the soil and have stored the information on computers to
serve the farmers and report and monitor the job as well as setting up
an Internet communication service overseen by the youth farmers and
teachers.

They also provide information from ALRO and coordination on the
Internet, together with the development of rice distribution and e-
commerce activities.

The result of the project has shown that the farmers can save around
1,500 baht a year in production costs related to fertiliser usage, and
increase productivity from 300 kilos to 400 kilos per rai, with total
income increased by 26,600 baht.

Asanee said that in the near future the community would also provide a
fertiliser mixture service and Nectec is now designing a fertiliser
mixture machine.

Currently tailor-made fertilisers have been applied to two crops, rice
and corn. By putting three data sets - soil nutrition, types of crop
and soil series - into the computer, the system will process and
suggest that how much tailor-made fertiliser should be used in each
particular area. The community also offers tailor-made fertilisers via
mobile phone.

The project will expand to other staple crops such as rubber, tapioca
and sugarcane.

In Roi Et, there is another model community, the Rice Community
Centre, which is the source of rice seed plants. The Thung Kularonghai
area in Roi Et, one of the world's best sources of jasmine rice, has
utilised a portable humidity meter to gauge the moisture level and
temperature of paddy fields. The community also uses a tracking system
to ensure consumers are able to track the route of products, from farm
to market.

The technology pilot model community and the live classroom have
encompassed the best practice processes that the community members and
farmers are the one who set the queries and learn how to deal with
them, while Nectec acts as the technology facilitator.

So far it has undertaken research on how to measure nitrogen,
phosphorus and potassium levels without using chemicals, and there is
a plan to apply sensor technology to solve this issue, Asanee said.

Some communities have knowledge management system and they have
developed a tailor-made information system to provide data to around
4,000 farmers. Those who grow rice will receive information concerning
rice, while those who grow rubber will receive data that is relevant
to growing rubber. The information will cover the weather and prices
of the crops.

The deputy director said Nectec is now conducting a five-year road map
of Smart Farm. This year has started with applications such as the NPK
meter, and the micro climate station that Nectec has established with
Kasetsart University doing the simulation of micro climate will help
the farmers to grow crops that are appropriate with the soil and
climate, as wellas the traceability system.

In line with the government's creative economy policy, Smart Farm and
Youth ALRO Cyber Brain will become the heart of the "creative
agriculture economy". To make agriculture sustainable, the
collaboration of schools, homes, communities and the government
sector, together with the academic institutes is the most crucial
factor.