farming education

[thaivisa63]

Hello

I don't know anything about farming, absolutely nothing at all. But I'm falling in love with a girl. I have money, she have lands from her parents. She tells me it's very possible to make a decent living from growing stuff and having knowledge about it isnt very important because you can just hire workers for 6k thb/month and they do everything for you LOL I'm not naive. I can only guess she has to at least be exagerating a lot.

My question is if I want to learn everything I need to know about farming, agriculture, just living off the land in general what are my options if I want to do it from here in Thailand ? Is there education available to farangs ? What kind of education ? Like school ? Do you think it's best to just learn by myself and do like my girlfriend tell me just buy and get workers to do the job for me at first ?

[aircut]

i don't believe you will find a course that would teaches you everything in 10 days. agriculture is a very diverse field and quite risky as a business, to succeed you will need to be an entrepreneur, innovator and have a life time experience - any other way will only make you one of the neighbors in the village. if i were you i would start learning the permaculture basics [ http://permaculturenews.org/ ] and than look for a university course in the field that interest you more. in chiang mai for example meajo university are offering agriculture for beginners courses mju.ac.th

[slapout]

if your girlfriends parents own the land, ask to see their records of crops, expenses, sales of products produced seasonally/yearly. labor cost, their time invested, machinery hired/purchased, etc.

if this info is not on record/avaliable. you may want to consider another investment avenue, like a bar, go go joint, house of ill repute, a taxie/tuk tuk for girlfriend to drive, a street food cart, etc. any of the latter will require less time to learn the ropes, and may be much more fun/intertaining to learn the pitfalls associated with the unknowns for someone with no experience.

good luck and keep us abreast of your thoughts.

[somo]

For sure they will not have any written financial records but don't let that put you off.

Take a good look at what other farmers in the area are growing and first learn from them.

Then use your business sense and money to improve on what they are doing.

Start small, don't buy any equipment just rent it and workers by the day or by the job.

If you can see a profit then just do more of the same.If not you will not have lost a lot.

It may take a year or two to learn the ropes but it is doable.

Cassava seems to be the most profitable crop but may not be the thing in your area.

[chenposeb]

sounds fun.

here's a link to some permaculture videos

http://www.geofflawton.com/sq/15449-geoff-lawton

Also there are several permaculture centres in Thailand that do residential courses that could help teach the basics.

http://www.punpunthailand.org

and

http://www.raktamachat.org

there are loads of others, also 100% Thai run organic farms which are also open to teaching your gf and her parents if they need to learn stuff.

My own experience has been quite challenging so check you are up to the challenge, keeping records really is best if you want to learn and budget properly.

Chok Dee!

Edited January 6, 2015 by chenposeb

[slapout]

i think you might be surprised at what either the father or the mother may have written down somewhere.

my mil (rest her soul) kept a talley of rice crop, garlic, and offseason veggies raised, consumed and sold for cash. it may not have been textbook accounting, but she knew within a guesstimate ( figured 5 to 10% of income), (the fil traded a little for entertainment, etc) the fil keep track of rainfall, and irrigation canel, flow, dry days, flood days etc on a little blackboard in a shed.

it took some digging but once they understood what i was looking for they were more than proud to give the info out. even my wife could not read/translate it but could listen and translate to the specific questons put to them.

in fact the fil told me the flood, drought, and irrigation water avaliability, histoy , of land we were considering purchaseing, within a kilometer of his farmland.

[Issangeorge]

Hello

I don't know anything about farming, absolutely nothing at all. But I'm falling in love with a girl. I have money, she have lands from her parents. She tells me it's very possible to make a decent living from growing stuff and having knowledge about it isnt very important because you can just hire workers for 6k thb/month and they do everything for you LOL I'm not naive. I can only guess she has to at least be exagerating a lot.

My question is if I want to learn everything I need to know about farming, agriculture, just living off the land in general what are my options if I want to do it from here in Thailand ? Is there education available to farangs ? What kind of education ? Like school ? Do you think it's best to just learn by myself and do like my girlfriend tell me just buy and get workers to do the job for me at first ?

First don't spend more than you can afford to lose. Second, learn Thai, I have not and get by quite well, except for when it relates to farming things, and then I am at a loss, and thus could never make money farming here, it is hard enough for those who speak fluent Thai. Third go to the nearest agricultural university/college and talk to them, you may find a very friendly person who speaks English and wants to speak more, befriend him and he will help you. Good luck.

[farmerjo]

How much land does she have???

[somo]

i think you might be surprised at what either the father or the mother may have written down somewhere.

my mil (rest her soul) kept a talley of rice crop, garlic, and offseason veggies raised, consumed and sold for cash. it may not have been textbook accounting, but she knew within a guesstimate ( figured 5 to 10% of income), (the fil traded a little for entertainment, etc) the fil keep track of rainfall, and irrigation canel, flow, dry days, flood days etc on a little blackboard in a shed.

it took some digging but once they understood what i was looking for they were more than proud to give the info out. even my wife could not read/translate it but could listen and translate to the specific questons put to them.

in fact the fil told me the flood, drought, and irrigation water avaliability, histoy , of land we were considering purchaseing, within a kilometer of his farmland.

They must be 1 in a 1,000,000 so suggesting records are a must in order to make a decision is just plain silly.

In any case when I started I learnt from scratch and have done well. Just be cautious and take it slowly learning as you go and you can't go far wrong.