Creating food security and food safety with Sufficiency Economy in Bannang Sata

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Community information

• 11 villages / 3,977 households
• Geography: Mostly mountainous with river plains in the central and eastern parts
• Occupation: Agriculture (rubber trees, fruits, freshwater fishing, and livestock)
• The COVID-19 situation results in the closure of villages and affects the household economy and community members, including children, youth, the elderly, the disabled and the poor. To alleviate the situation, the Bannang Sata SAO is trying to build food security in the community by encouraging children and youths and other career groups to grow vegetables and raise animals to feed the village and build unity.

Activities

• A farming project for students at the Ban Than Thip School
• A kitchen garden project for the Sufficiency Economy Group of the Ban Nang Ku Wae community
• Engaging youths of the Ban Pa Wang Nok Youth Group in growing a kitchen gardening and building check-in booths to keep them away from drugs
• Supporting the Ban Ka Sot Youth Group to raise catfish in a cement pond

Results

• 30 household members of the Sufficiency Economy Group, Village 4, Ban Nang Ku Wae, grow oyster mushrooms and sell them at 50 THB per kilogram or 10 THB per bag. The proceeds are used to purchase vegetable seeds to distribute to members of 10 households who are ready and have some free space to grow vegetables.
• 20 members of the Ban Pa Wang Nok Youth Group, Village 11, who are unemployed, built check-in booths at community tourist attractions and grow vegetables at those check-in booths. This activity created jobs for them and helped them stay away from drugs.
• 5 members of the Ban Ka Sot Youth Group, Village 5, dropped out of compulsory schooling. These youths are now raising catfish in a cement pond and sell the fish to schools, child development centers, and the Tadika School which cook the fish as students’ lunches. During the outbreak of COVID-19, fish are given to villagers in the quarantine.

Participants

The family of Kamila Hengdada, 36, consists of 10 members, aged 5-35. Kamila is the chairwoman of the Ban Nang Ku Wae Group, which has 40 members. The group’s activities include making compost, insect repellents, EM liquid fertilizer, fruit hormones, growing vegetables, and raising chickens and mushrooms at the community learning center. The group received support from the SAO. Activities at the learning center are divided into 2 parts. The first part is a collective agricultural plot at the Sufficiency Economy Learning Center for members who have time but do not have land to grow vegetables on the common plot. The members share responsibilities in growing vegetables, raising egg-laying chickens, and fish. The second part is to give vegetable seeds to members who have farming area at home.

“This is the first time the Sufficiency Economy Learning Center received support from the SAO. It helps us work more easily with the SAO and accelerates the construction of the learning center. We are able to produce high quality food. Our produce, such as vegetables, is bought by three community restaurants every three days. Our group has a stall at the city’s flea market that runs every Monday. We sell the produce from our collective plot, such as mushrooms and eggs, and the produce from the members’ plots, such as eggplants, peppers, and cucumbers. The villagers and middlemen in the community buy our produce because it’s affordable. We make compost ourselves, and do not use chemicals. We also share the produce with families in the COVID quarantine center – five eggs and one bag of mushrooms per family once a week. If our members are sick, we give them the produce too.”

Location