sbf

Farmers at 7.4 million households would be my guess

No my bank branch is in Isaan. I guess I have had to get 4-5 cards out of province over the last 4-5 years., most recently in March this year.

This is not so in my experience with Bangkok Bank at all. I split my time between two different provinces and have on several occasions obtained a replacement card from Bangkok Bank in Phuket which is not the province where the my account branch is located. Just presented passport and bank book and a sorry tale of what happened to te bank card this time.

It’s not just the cops, army and politicians - corruption is rife through many government departments and local authorities here. If you have dealings with some of these officials and you are observant you will see it in many places, often with exquisite and profitable execution. If only the energy and talent invested in the corruption were applied to the good of the country

Is anyone interested in this area? I had a look through the OP's for a few pages and did a search but did not bring anything up on the forum. As someone who has been around farming and especially organic production for many years, this seems to be an approach which has a lot of merit, and from the scientific evidence coming forwards it looks as if there may be an opportunity if this approach was widely adoption to mitigate some of the worst effects of increasing carbon dioxide levels whilst producing high quality food and other agricultural products in a profitable manner. There seems to be little work going on in Thailand either practically or academically at present, but I would love to stand corrected on this if anyone has any input. For those not familiar with the basic principles of regenerative agriculture they are little or no soil disturbance maximise plant diversity maintaining living plant cover at all times low artificial chemical pesticide and fertiliser inputs and integrate livestock if at all possible Farms following all these principles are being measured as increasing organic matter levels in the soil up to 0.5% a year. Hence the interest from climate change researchers. Drawing down carbon from the atmosphere and locking it into soils is a very cheap and effective way to reduce carbon dioxide levels. For those who wish to pursue this area further, there is already quite a lot of information available. Some is coming from academia in the form of scientific papers, others from practical farmers. Here is the list of some of the more accessible information starting with farmers and moving to the more academic research. Good general introductions Living Soil Film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntJouJhLM48 Soil Carbon Coalition https://soilcarboncoalition.org/regenerative-secret-film/ Carbon Cowboys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGvVli0OTrQ Some farmers applying these techniques Gabe Brown - practical farmer with a very clear manner of describing the benefits of these principles on his farm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUmIdq0D6-A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfTZ0rnowcc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkoCY4E0Fj4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvQGEtLtIpc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yPjoh9YJMk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxIyKfWf9kU Book Dirt to Soil, One Families Journey into Regenerative Agriculture Joel Salatin another articulate farmer from USA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsbDXQBuwPg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z75A_JMBx4&t=69s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBZgANtcXm8&t=2721s He has also authored several books but I have not read any yet Charles Massey an Australian farmer and researcher, with a fairly recently published book on the subject https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et8YKBivhaE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vQW8Tl_KLc Book Call of the Reed Warbler Savory Institute Alan Savory is a Zimbabwean farmer whose principles of rotational grazing are being followed by many of the regenerative farmers who have livestock https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpTHi7O66pI&t=2s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMjKcCfBtfI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVxLQtSqvbQ Books Holistic Management Holistic Management : A New Framework Dr Christine Jones This woman is my heroine, she has done some amazing research, and has some great presentations of this work on her website and in various youtube clips website https://www.amazingcarbon.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3_w_Gp1mLM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8_i1EzR5U8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW_5eLhKNTY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xZ7nfC7BQk&t=469s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYRpFqUlK78 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuM2tnX-KJI Jena University just to show that Europe while lagging in some ways is also doing some interesting research in the area http://www.the-jena-experiment.de https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=j3SvG2nBCTM&feature=emb_logo Rodale Institute this highly reputable and long established institute has been working on low chemical input, no-till, cover crop systems for a long time. We built one of their no-till roller crimpers a couple of years ago for use in our farming activities Organic no-till https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkMB5meXMGg Dr Ray Archuleta soil scientist extension officer from US who has been working in the field for many years https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fwv-HJnGHMA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uMPuF5oCPA Dr David Montgomery A geologist by training Dr Montgomery has a great take on the whole field. I highly recommend his books as well written and informative especially Growing a Revolution https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej4nler3FiY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HwlqR1YnNk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-8mCXxsR3M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ22IV2tDvs Books Growing a Revolution The Hidden Half of Nature Dirt Dr David Johnson This guy has done some really interesting research into the microbial benefits of compost, developed an interesting composting system. Being a microbiologist by training he has a very interesting take on things and produces the evidence to prove his points. We have built three of his style of compost heaps but the first will not mature for up to another 6 months. I am not quite sure on timing as his work in Arizona suggest 1 year as optimal, perhaps with the constant heat here in Thailand we can reduce this somewhat. Our first one is 6 months old. https://media.csuchico.edu/media/Soil+MicrobesA+Their+Powerful+Influence+in+Agroecosytems/0_ltz0ea1h https://holisticmanagement.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Quivira_Johnson1.pdf https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmj611RfBgs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuW42tFC4Ss https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=164&v=18FVVYKU9gs&feature=emb_logo Thailand - and finally a Thai twist on things, this is the only work I could find being done here. https://www.asean-agrifood.org/farmers-in-central-thailand-turn-to-alternative-crops-to-sustain-soil-health-after-harvest/ I would love to hear from others interested in this area. I hope that this OP sparks some discussion and maybe gives a few evenings of interest to some on the forum inclined to follow the links