By: PIYAPORN WONGRUANG
Published: 15/02/2009 at 12:00 AM

Newspaper section: NewsOver the next few months, Mrs Urai hopes to see her rice yield her first crop of the year. Eight days ago, the rice barely survived an attack by tiny aphids that suck nutrients from the plant stems.


Mrs Urai managed to protect her 10 rai of farmland by spraying brown-coloured insecticides made from plants that grow around her house such as neem, lemongrass and others.

This was only the first round in her fight with the insects. Like many other organic farmers, Mrs Urai, of Don village in U Thong district, Suphan Buri, one of the country's rice-growing regions, will face many more such attacks over the coming months.

However, her weapons of choice might face confiscation if the Hazardous Substances Committee goes ahead with its plan to place 13 plants on an unsafe substances list.

"I couldn't believe they were doing this to us. We have used plants for generations and have come up with insecticide formulae that can help us become less dependent on chemicals. Why would they prohibit us from using them?" said a furious Mrs Urai after being informed about the listing by her village head, Boonrod Srathongdee.

She was speaking before the Agriculture Department announced on Thursday it would clarify the classification of the 13 plants.

Farmers like Mrs Urai prefer using organic insecticides to chemical ones.

According to the Thailand National Chemicals Management Profile 2005, produced by the Chemical Safety Group, under the Ministry of Public Health, from 1998 to 2003 more than 2,000 farmers fell sick from agricultural chemicals every year. In 1999 alone, the deaths of at least 30 farmers were attributed to chemicals.

The report also noted that in some years, illnesses and casualties from chemical use was "even worse" than those in the industrial sector. It said that farmers' contact with agricultural chemicals should be a matter of national concern.

Despite these facts, chemical use in the farm sector is on the rise. In 1996, Thailand imported about 45,000 tonnes of chemicals for agricultural use. In 2005, the amount rose to 75,000 tonnes, worth more than 10 billion baht, according to the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry's Agriculture Department.

But with the help of non-profit organisations such as Biothai, which promotes sustainable agriculture, farmers have been steadily switching to organic substances. Over the past 20 years, alternative farming has become more popular.

The Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry's Land Development Department notes that in 2007, up to 746,000 farmers had reduced their use of chemicals and moved to natural substances.

Witoon Lianchamroon, director of Biothai, said natural substances are generally produced in farm households and communities using simple procedures. If the government goes ahead and places the 13 plants on the hazardous substances list, the progress of sustainable farming would suffer.

Mr Witoon also pointed to the removal of up to nine farm-based chemicals from the list, at the same time that the 13 plants were proposed for inclusion. Such a "coincidence" caused concern that "the listing" might be tainted by the commercial interests of chemical companies.

"The use of plants is no different from farmers' diets or medical treatments," said Mr Witoon. "So if you restrict them, it would affect other uses by the farmers and their holistic lifestyle."

At Don village, Mr Boonrod said no agriculture officials had come to explain the proposal. This is despite the fact that his village was a pilot location for a sufficiency farming programme introduced by the Surayud government two years ago. He heard about the proposed listing from news reports.

"The villagers have never gathered so quickly to hear what I had to tell them," said Mr Boonrod. "We are trying to find out why they did that, and why our plants have become hazardous."

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By Bangkok Post On 15 Feb 2009

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