Stabilisation of upland agriculture under El nino-induced climatic risk: Impact assessment and mitigation measures in Thailand

This study focuses on the impacts on areas vulnerable to El Nino in five provinces and five regions in Thailand. The findings indicate that events caused by El Nino-induced weather changes had some impacts on the stabilization of upland agriculture in those vulnerable areas. In general severe drought and a long period of water were experienced in some of the vulnerable areas of the Northeast and the Central regions. Some areas had a decrease of the yield, while others had a complete failure of field corn, sorghum, sugar cane. Peanut and mungbean. The impacts of El Nino on social and economic conditions of Thailands vulnerable areas included labour mobilization, and low purchasing power and loan repayment abilities of the farmers. For food security, more analysis is required at the farm level. Although Thailand has no policies and measures for coping directly with events caused by El, the are existing policies and measures that effectively cope with normal droughts and floods that frequently occur. These effective policies and measures are national risk awareness and warning, reforestation and afforestation, water resource management, crop diversification, mixed farm systems, integrated farming and self-sufficient farming. For the future, policies and measures should be generated based on the following characteristics. They should increase the participation rate of any community and communal administrative organization concerned in corporation, moreover they should be favourable to the stability and sustainability of on-farm productivity and the increase of the use of agricultural and forest by products instead of fossil fuels. In addition, the policies should be favourable to the reinforcement of national food security and the betterment of physical, biological, economic and social environments. The stability of bio-diversity, prevention of soil erosion and shallowness of water sources are also emphasised. The use of technologies should not only be suitable to the countrys economic, social and environmental status. But also be self-sufficient and self-supportable. Finally, the policy should be clear-cut, concise, compact flexible, practical, and useful.