Some methodological features and recent advances in the Thai-French Farming Systems Research Project carried out in the Songkhla lake basin Southern Thailand
1985
Prasert Chaitapong | Yves Crozat (Prince of Songkla Univ. (Thailand). Faculty of Natural Resources)
Songkhla Lake basin is the largest rice producing area in Southern Thailand. Farmers in the area depend primarily on rice cultivation for their income. The secondary sources of income are fisheries and livestock raising. In some areas of the basin such as Sathing Phra and Ranot, the production and processing of sugar from palm trees (Borassus flabellifer) is the major alternative sources income. The agrarian system in these particular areas needs improvement due to unbalances recently arising in rice based cropping system and to the ineffective methods of sugar palm production and processing. The problems in the area have been diagnosed and the area as well as the existing farming system have been classified into 9 agro-ecological units and 3 types of farming system. The problems are mainly concerned with the constraints of the rice-based cropping system and palm sugar processing. The main problems of the cropping systems are declining soil fertility, wild rice infestation, soil preparation and implantation techniques. For sugar processing, the use of furnace with low heat efficiency and the preservation of fresh sap are the major limitations. New cropping pattern, in which mungbeans are grown after and before rice cultivation, do not improve soil fertility or reduce the wild rice problem.
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