Home In Garden 7 acres of land for sufficiency on food and sustainable living condition Our Creator God created us as the most valuable creation among all. we like Leklek’s nomad uncle, Paw, said, “One Life, Live it”, and we want to add to this, “Live it for the Creator and all the creation”
“You’ve got to have one in English”, when one of my foreigner friends saw the Thai version of Family Agroforestry, it was a booklet of 37 pages and tell the story of a family trying to grow their own food, create a little resting area for their family and friends, share their learning, and try to care for the creation. I made a promise to him and started but it’s almost 12 months to finish the English version which is not exactly the same as the Thai one but the concepts are here. I wish he will be happy to see it, even though, I am sure that he will probably not read it because he finished the Thai version already. But I still believe that he will share this small booklet to other people around him which our family see as a channel of blessings from us, through others, and to other people.
The booklet will tell you something about how we should and would live our life in slower pace but greater impact for our own family and for the earth, the creation. It’s simply explained with few sentences on each page, and with pictures to help clarify the content because English is considered the fourth language and Few times used by our family. We pray that you will enjoy picking it up, looking at the pictures, reading some of the words, and “start to do something” in your backyard. People of Home in Garden, December 2015
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Introduction WHY Home in Garden Condition “To start a farm, start with a frame” Live with PURPOSE Growth Benefits – – – – –
at least an inheritor or successor Food always in the home –FAITH Environmental Restoration Economics Empowerment Peace and Relax for spiritual renewal
– Friendship is a blessing – You gain when you share – IDEA, LEARNING, MISSION (FaM and WaM)
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Top 10 methodologies and approaches practiced at Home in Garden
Birds and bird watching at Home in Garden
Fresh tea from Home in Garden
Year 2006, during the hottest month, it was April, a family of 3 people who had no experience of farming started a farm called, Home in Garden, it’s 7 acres which half of the land was paddy field and another half was filled with 60 Litchi trees those are older than them. To start this farm, it’s not by accident but it’s intentionally plan and think about it for the last 8 years while the family lived and worked in Chiang Mai. They started to read books, make visits to demonstration centers throughout Thailand, talk to farmers, learn from people who live in the area, and pray about it. People asked and still asking for the reasons of starting the farm, and the benefits. The family started with 3 main reasons; 1. They want to stop buying eggs. 2. They want to grow and eat their own rice. 3. They want to connect the only daughter (and themselves) to relatives, culture, and nature, which we call it, “a real community”. And later on, they added one more reason; 4. They want to become a blessing to people around them through the farming practices which it’s called, “ FaM-Farming as Mission”
Chemical Farming
Since year 2000, the farm and whole area surrounded by chemical citrus orchard own by businessmen from central Thailand. People started to fight for water, air, soil, and forest. Paddy field was turned into the orchard, local people started to work on those orchards and affected by chemicals and led to health problems. Our small farm is located in the middle of the chemical citrus orchards and some chemical rice fields, and those rice farmers were preparing to turn their rice fields into citrus orchard. When the “little crazy” family (called by others) built a small house in April 2006, people asked, “will you start a citrus orchard?”, and when the answer given to them was, “we will do integrated farming according to the Thai king’s theory”, people turned their back and walk away.
Organic and Integrated Farming
In 2006, the ideas of organic farming was impossible and not accepted by local people. “We don’t care, just to get money that’s enough, the customers want good looking vegetable, with holes on the leaves, they don’t like it, so we do it for them”, it’s sad when we heard these because people were killing each other by using of chemical on their food. In early morning, farmers ran to a truck from another village, full of vegetable, meats, cooked food. Some bought a bag of chili, some bought a piece of fried chicken, some bought few eggs, some bought a bag of soy milk, which most things they could produce it locally in their backyard or their farm. People forgot about Integrated Farming which it’s been practiced for generations and it’s the methodology that helped them grow and able to live. The knowledge of their grandparents had gone because of one hour listening to someone from big city about citrus business. So our family expected a lot of pressure from our neighbors and relatives, and ready to be called “a little crazy family”.
We all know that there are thousands of techniques out there for farming, but without a frame (farm plan and sketch), we will work hard and harder every year. In opposite, with a clear and good frame for farm work, we will work less and easier each second. The 7 acres of land was divided into 7 sections; 2 acres was for rice and a small fish pond, 1.5 acres was for annual crops such as corn and beans for sell and for animal, 1.5 acres was for livestock mainly chicken and some ducks and we thought about pigs, goats and cows, 0.5 acre was for forest plants and bamboo, 1 acre was for fruit tree, a small plot for vegetable, and a place next to the stream for a small house. To come up with the sketch, we considered some factors such as the wind direction, sunrise and sunset, existed plants and trees, water availability, transportation, and safety, and the 3+ reasons.
Later of year 2008, we have made some minor changes to the farm map to help us have a better picture of the purposes of Home in Garden existence, we add an area (#2) along the stream for forest banana and edible fern (Paak Good), Pakk Wan, local chili, and pineapple, in order to have more vegetables year round especially during dry season, but less work. #1 Rice field (main staple) #2 Perennial plants -wet zone (food in dry season) #3 Bamboo and Forest plants (construction and food) #4 House and home (shelter and meeting area) #5 Perennial Plants -dry zone (food in wet season) #6 Fruit trees and bees (vitamin and sweet and pollination) #7 Small scale Livestock (protein and some income) #8 Annual crop field (animal food and protein)
The first two years, it’s, somewhat, difficult for our family to run a farm since it’s no experience, no support in the area (people working on chemical farming), not enough motivation since no good example in the area, the techniques were listed but still without a test and confirmation of suitability to the farm, no money so no outside labor, BUT we started with PURPOSE to live in sufficient and sustainable way. Our family learn to glorify God for His creation which allowing us to use it for our living, to multiply it for people around us, and to CARE for it.
May 2012 -now We have learned that to grow a beautiful and edible forest, it doesn’t take that long, 3-6 years should be an enough time.
May 2007
May 2006 “In reality, the forest grow and take care of itself when people leave them alone, so don’t waste your energy to grow it but take care of (manage) it”.
at least an inheritor or successor
Leklek the little girl *Leklek means little little, she has six names; Prapown is her real nickname, PownSaRa is her official name, RiKoE is a Karen name, TaeTae is her Lahu name, and Bethany is an English name.
May 2006
May 2007
When her parents made decision to leave a big city of Chiang Mai in 2006, she was 3.6 years old, so she knew a little bit of the city life. On the farm, she started her life with a lot of friends; earthworms, cricket, frogs, birds, butterflies, cats, dogs, pigs, goats, rabbits, chicken, ducks, fish, and even mosquitoes and snakes, and she has cousins around the same age, and friends from six ethnic groups, so she started her school at an “Inter” School (Inter-tribal). “Let your hands and feet connect to the earth”, her dad always remind her with this saying so she will grow up looking below (underneath), around, and above herself.
May 2012
May 2015
Her parents try to connect her with the CREATION; nature (soil, water, forest, star, moon, sun, animal, and human), norm (tradition and culture), and “normalism” so she can live with other creation peacefully.
Food always in the home -FAITH
FAITH –food always in the home *is an idea and methodology to help a family to always have food available which is similar to SEED project (Something to Eat Everyday Project). Get more information from here, http://www.agriculturesnetwork.org/magazines/global/whose-energy/foodalways-in-the-home
“Eat what you grow, grow what you eat”, we learned from some older farmers, and tried it out, and it started to work, and we added, “Grow what you know, know what you grow” because we learned that when a farmer knew a little bit about citrus and grew it, “disaster to the creation including the farmer”.
Environmental Restoration
ENVIRONMENTAL CARE – creation care *UHDP (www.uhdp.org) and Plant With Purpose (www.plantwithpurpose.org) are the two Christian organizations which really much involve in the restoration of environment in northern Thailand and will be in the region of golden triangle of SEA.
Stop burning rice straw
Using local variety and free chemical produced
Reuse, Recycle, Reduce –NO WASTE Natural farming practices using effective micro-organism
Container garden
Try to cook own food “at home”, not at a restaurant (Moo Kra Ta)
Economics Empowerment
FAMILY ECONOMICS – “Toom Paw Piang” *Toom Paw Piang means Sufficient Earthen Jar, a demonstration of a jar with holes so we cannot keep the water. See more information from here, http://www.chaipat.or.th/chaipat_english/index.php?option=com_conte nt&view=article&id=4103&Itemid=293 The Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy “Economic development must be done step by step. It should begin with the strengthening of our economic foundation, by assuring that the majority if our population has enough to live on…Once reasonable progress has been achieved, we should then embark on the next steps, by pursuing more advanced levels of economic development.” “Being a tiger is not important. The important thing is for us to have a sufficient economy. A sufficient economy means to have enough to support ourselves…we have to take a careful step backward…each village or district must have relative self-sufficient.” His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej
“Sufficiency Economy and New theory didn’t work” While we were in the middle of searching for options to run a farm, we heard this. We thought, the king must not lie to his people, there must be something wrong when people adopting the concept and methodology. We said to ourselves that we got to try it out and see. Then within two years, we started to see the benefit especially the family economic which it was better. It confirmed that “fewer holes, more water and stay longer”. Later on, we started to say that, the best indicator for economic development is how much you have left in your pocket (not how much you earn). Without Home in Garden, our family must look for , in average, 8,000 baht per month to pay for food and others.
Peace and Relax for spiritual renewal
STRESS and BURNING OUT – the signs *when you start to see the signs, heal it, don’t let it grow until it is ripen…it will be dangerous. See more information here, https://www.barnabas.org/files/Am%20I%20Burning%20Out.pdf
Even though, Home in Garden is not a fancy resort, but a place that our family and sometimes friends be benefit as to relaxing and renewing our mind and soul. To recover from stress and burning out, we need a place and people to be nice and stay close and around. A rush hour and traffic jam in big city makes the stress worst, a busyness of paperwork at the office desk leads to burning out faster and more serious, the smoke and spirit of bar and nightclub is a bad decision to get rid of the stress and burn out. We need a place to be closer to our family, friends, the creation and the CREATOR.
Friendship is a blessing
FRIENDSHIP – is a blessing Each year, people from more than 8 countries visiting us and we build friendship though sharing and learning from one another, and on the dining table with dishes from different nations and ethnic groups, it’s a blessing we never expect when we started. Proverbs 27 verse 9 said, “As oil and fragrances give joy to the heart, so is he that is sweet to his neighbor in the counsel of his soul.” Aramaic Bible in Plain English We like this version because it reminds us that a friend is not just someone from oversea or big city, it is also someone next door who is our neighbor. Through the relationship building with people in the village we live and nearby, they have started open for some “ weird looking” things on our farm; planting one single rice seedling, growing a lettuce in container, raising frogs in used tires, allowing weed grow together with vegetable, walking 100 miles from Chiang Mai to UHDP, and cycling all over Thailand. Helen Keller, “ I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light.” Come and walk with people of Home in Garden
IDEA, LEARNING, MISSION -FaM
MISSION POSSIBLE – what is in your hand? *one can be a missionary started by things in his or her hand and together with others, it become another great mission possible
FaM-Farming as Mission has slowly and intentionally developed since 2006 and now God is using us to, not just waiting on the farm, go out and tell the truth of the Creator to and through people in a larger scale without borders. Some church leaders who said no to development work have turned into the conversation on FaM, and want to do something about it in the integral approach to their ministry.
We did not expect to start any mission work when started Home in Garden, actually, we did run away from Christian organization and mission. When we are assigned to do something since God has a plan for us, like Moses, he did follow and fulfilled God’s plan for him and His people, even though, at the beginning of calling, he refused with several reasons. Our family believe that God has prepared us to become “missionary” (those who follow His calling for a specific mission according to the things in their hands). Our family has a small farm which we are allowed to use and take care of it. God has blessed us not just for the things we need, food and rest, but He starts using the small place through our family becoming a blessing to people around us, and those are from other places to at least have a meal of good food and a breath of relaxing moment. Allowing God and Following His plan, and becoming missionary for an organization called, JESUS Co.Ltd.
IDEA, LEARNING, MISSION -WaM
MISSION POSSIBLE – what is in your hand? *one can be a missionary started by things in his or her hand and together with others, it become another great mission possible
WaM is an approach in responding to the issues of environmental crisis in the region of golden triangle, and we want to see, especially, Christian, local churches, and Christian organizations doing something in an integral approach for the environment, “CREATION”. We believe that God has a plan for them and waiting for them to start. *The Fact – most areas of Christian living and farming are worst, in terms of deforestation, than areas of non-believers.
The approach It’s not just a drop of water, but it’s a big river to feed millions of people in the region. Water is essential for everyone; rich-poor, powerful-powerless, citizen-non-citizen, men-women, old-young, and it’s also about upstream and downstream, a country to another country, north-south, east-west, and EVERYTHING. We are looking for a better management of Watershed, Community Forest, and Water sources for a better condition of people, areas, countries, and regions.
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Farm plan and management Container Gardening Agroforestry Organic Farming SRI Free-range Chicken Green energy Green living Research and Reading Sharing and Exchange Prayer and Thanksgiving
As already mentioned in section of “To start a farm, start with a frame”, farm plan is one of the most important stage when a family wants to start a farm for living. Without a farm plan, the farmers can be easily attracted by several circumstances as below; • “You can get more benefit by using chemical” • “Why don’t you grow citrus which the price now is very good?” • “Are you crazy, practicing organic methodology?” • “We grow only one thing and it’s not enough to fee our families, but you grow different things in the same plot, how will you be survived?” • “Next year, the corn price will better, let’s plan to expand the plot for the crop” • “New Theory and Sufficiency Economics is just a dream” When we first came back and started the farm, the statements above raised to our family and it’s powerful since the majority was on that side and walking toward it, but our family was trying to walk away from chemical, mono -cropping, only money, loans and debt, unhealthy food, and people waiting for a truck for food. The farm plan really helps us to stay firm and connect to our belief and goals, and also provides a frame for us to be on track and choose appropriate technologies and methodologies for our farm in order grow and develop in a sustainable way. We have learned a good farm plan should follow the following diagram, similar to a project cycle management. We started with a need and capacity assessment to know ourselves and also challenges surrounded, then we set a goal which it was simple but motivated; a) from now on, we will grow our own rice, b) we will stop buying egg and chicken from outside, c) we will produce healthy food for our family. We made a simple work plan which could be changed but not so flexible since we were connected to the frame.
Then started activities such as land preparation, constructing chicken house, planting 20 tree seedlings every morning, digging a fishpond by hand, searching for a good local breed of chicken and ducks, learning from older people who have been living and doing agriculture for more than half of their lives, reading articles and books on organic and natural farming, testing some technologies, also taking time to think about the future of the farm and family, looking for market opportunities locally, and starting to harvest from the farm such as eggs, vegetable, fish, chicken, rice. The first two years, we worked hard, since we didn’t have any farming background and experiences. So when someone wants to start farming, it’s better to try it as a hobby first before becoming a fulltime farmer. Testing and experiment must be a part of farming in order to help a farmer to grow and grow. To test something, we set a side a small plot as a trial instead of turning the whole field into and for a new technology. For a small piece of land and limitation of financial resource, a farmer should consider “think big but start small” method. Every day or week or month, depending on the activities, we did a revision of our work and looked for improvements and even sometimes “a stop doing”. Most farmers in our area have a fear of stopping some practices of farming due to the following reasons which we see that it’s not reasonable sometimes; • “if I stop this, I am afraid that we will have nothing to eat” • “If I stop this, people in my village will see that I am crazy” • “If I stop this, I don’t know what to do because I don’t have other methods. • “If I stop this, ………………………….” Even to stop doing something, people in the village has to think a lot because they are related to others in the same village. (It’s not like those who live in big city where the individualism takes place.) We have done Need and Capacity Assessment time to time to make sure that the needs are fulfilled and capacities are enough to manage the farm.
“Container Gardening is one of the solutions for responding to the crisis of changes in climate” We have started to fall in love with container gardening since year 2009 when it was an opportunity to visit ECHO farm at Fort Myer, Florida, USA. The farm demonstrated various designs of container gardening which we learned that it helped for reducing of time and management to grow vegetables for family consumption. For us, we always look for options to make use of our time both for ministries and family life. The other reason of adopting the container gardening is because we raise chicken as free range and learned that it’s sometimes a problem for the vegetable when chicken get into the garden and collapse everything. The method helps us a lot by confusing chicken so they live together with vegetable in peace. Comparing to other farming methods of small space, we have learned that container gardening also helps us in 3 main things; LESS WEED – weed is one of the problems when growing vegetable, but when we prepare the potting soil well, it’s almost 0% of weed in each container, that means we don’t use any herbicides or spend time for weeding. LESS WATER – water becomes a challenge for farming in our area especially in dry season, but we have learned that container gardening helps to save water up to 40% . LESS WORK – means we take less time at our garden and actually now it becomes as our hobby.
We like this statement from FAO (http://www.fao.org/forestry/agroforestry/en/# ) Agroforestry is part of the solution to addressing issue of food crisis…. Agroforestry systems include both traditional and modern land -use systems where trees are managed together with crops and/or animal production systems in agricultural settings. The methodology has been promoted by UHDP-Upland Holistic Development Project (www.uhdp.org) since 1996, and there are fruits from the work in different communities throughout northern Thailand and starting in Myanmar, and other countries from SEA. Our family has started the system in late of 2006 which it’s the integration of fruit trees, local and forest plants, chicken, ducks, bees, vegetable, rice, and some medicinal plants. We have learned that it’s not just for food and family economics but it’s really a mean for increased bio-diversity. Every year, 14-20 different types of birds visited our small farm, and some stay longer even a year or two. Different types of reptiles which some are poison but some lovely. We never use any pesticide since 2006 and we have been told from some experts that it’s called IPM-integrated pest management; the good bugs manage the bad guys, some plants help to keep some pest away and attract some good ones. My daughter always say that it’s cooler when entering into our small farm, that means some tall trees help to protect the heat from the sun, and bushes keep the moisture, and it creates just the right temperature (25-30 degree Celsius) in our summer time. Actually, in Thailand and other parts of the golden triangle areas, especially among the ethnic groups, agroforestry has been practiced for generations and actually in a larger scale when they do rotational farming practice. The concept of integration of edible plants, herbs, animals both domestic and wild, and people is already existed, but when “some experts” started to say that, we want to improve in our farm production, so people have started to change their farming practices.
Organic farming is a form of agriculture that relies on techniques such as crop rotation, green manure, compost, and biological pest control. Some people say that Organic farming works in harmony with nature rather than against it. This involves. using techniques to achieve good crop yields without harming the natural. environment or the people who live and work in it. Sometimes, we say, non-chemical, natural farming, integrated farming, which we think it’s all connected. The core of our farming practices is CREATION CARE including people. We are trying our best to; - Adopt the techniques which do not harm the people and environment - Avoid using of chemical, but looking for other options to replace it - Actively live as we say and say what we live - Against (sometimes) to those we are addict of using chemical From our experience since 2006, the better preparation of soil, seed, seedlings, source of water, screening of technologies leads to the better of farm production and cost reduction. So organic farming, for us, is not just a methodology but it’s a set of farm management including the caring for the creation.
SRI is System of Rice Intensification, a technique to double your rice production as well as to help reducing the cost of seed, seedling propagation, labor, and chemical, and we have experienced and benefited from SRI. There were questions popped up when we started growing rice in 2006; - Do we need to plough the field before planting rice seeding? - Do we need to use at lest 6 seedlings to plant rice? - Do we need to soak seeds in water before we germinate it in the prepared muddy beds? - Do we need to burn the field before we plough it? - Do we need to change the rice seeds every 3 years? - Do we need to use chemical fertilizer? - Does organic rice growing method really help? - Are there any other options in growing rice easier and getting better production, even double it? You must know that we did not grow up as farmers even Da (Leklek’s mom, and Tui’s wife) spent her first 13 years as a youngest daughter of a family of rice farmer but didn’t do much by herself. So the best way was to ask Da’s mom who has been a rice farmer for more than 50 years. It was a question among 100 of questions, “Why do you do like that?”, and the answer was, “Since I have learned from my parents and done this until now”. So one question was raised in our minds, “WHAT will be a NEW and NEXT step of growing rice?”
Here is the summary of the SRI technique and you can find more information on websites by typing the word SRI or System of Rice Intensification. Rice is plant and has a life, so the healthier the better both for growth and production. A healthy rice seedling needs suitable soil, water, and nutrient to grow well, protect itself from it’s enemies, and produce well. Even though, it needs some vitamins and hormones but should not be all the time. (Home in Garden, 2015) Below is a simple steps of SRI which can be adjusted according to the situation; • Transplanting rice seedlings when the first two leaves have emerged, usually sometime between 8-15 days old. • Transplanting seedlings singly rather than in clumps. • Wide spacing of seedlings, usually no less than 25 cm x 25 cm. • Maintenance of moist but un-flooded conditions in the paddy. • Weeding by hand or with a mechanical rotary hoe. • Using organic inputs such as compost, green manures and other biomass. ECHO Development Notes article, “SRI, the System of Rice Intensification, 2001 Step 1 (2008-2011) We did more research on SRI and visited SRI farmers in Chiang Mai area to learn about their challenges and success stories, and we saw it’s very positive to invest in SRI.
Step 2 (2012-2013) We set aside a small area to test SRI and it seemed working, but we were not quite sure, so we continued with another trial for one more year, and we felt 80% confident and wanted to expand.
Step 3 (2014-2015) We made some changes to the technique and expanded to 2/3 of the rice field.
Changes made; -propagation of seeds and seedlings in container instead of in the muddy bed. -selection of healthier seedlings. -1-3 seedlings transplanting
“For meat and, Share and sell, Help to control insects, termite, Create some activities for our daughter, Learn and experiments”, these is a list of our objectives when we started our chicken project in 2006. It’s fund but busy, but less than our pig and goat project which we stopped it. We would like to recommend for a farmer who want to start a farm to include chicken to their farm plan. The benefits are organic egg, fresh and testy chicken, and as it’s mentioned in the objectives which all are fulfilled. There are key factors we always consider for the project; - Local and suitable breeds - Chicken house management; make it clean and nice - Good food and try to avoid readymade or commercial feed from factory - Think more about natural than commercial led technologies - Chicken birth control - Using medicinal plants for protection - Free-range system - be creative to make chicken happy - Always looking for the nature of chicken To raise chicken or pig or other livestock, food can be their main cost. Some say, if you manage the cost well, you gain more profit. We have done some cost reduction methods such as fermented feed from banana stalk, salt, and molasses, and we see that it help to reduce the cost to 40-50% , and actually it’s also good for the digestion and reduce the odor. The composting chicken house is another one which we see that it’s really good and now adopted by UHDP center.
One way to help the earth is using what people call, “Green Energy”. In 2006, people started to sell their solar panels when the battery charger controller and battery were expired or broken after almost 5 years of the solar power project provided by the government. It was the time when we arrived in the village and started the farm, and didn’t know much about solar power. We didn’t pay attention to it but looking for electricity from PEA-Provincial Electricity Authority. Later in 2008, when the green energy topic was raised up more, we did more research about it, and now we have started using it at our farm for lights and water pump for fish pond and vegetable garden. We have seen the benefit of using solar power not just to save the money in our pocket but it helps us to better think, care, and use the natural resources around us such as water, soil, air, plants and trees, animals, and even human. Once a week, we charge our battery for the light at night time, and sometimes take the whole set down to the creek to pump water into the storage tanks so we can water plants and vegetables. Energy is manageable and especially the green or alternative energy such as solar, wind, and water but we just need to pay attention to it and start something about it. We will not stop experimenting and looking for greener options for a greener living style.
Out family loves reading books and watching documentaries which really help us to learn new things around us. When we do a research project, it is something that we want to try it out and know about it before we start to adopt it. For example, it took us almost 4 years to really start the SRI-Systematic Rice Intensification Technique in growing rice. Living in rural area, one of the challenges when someone wants to try something is “people around are watching you” so sometimes we just pretend that we don’t know that they are watching us. Actually, it helps us to come up a better design of our research project so it’s not go too ugly when it’s not tuned out beautiful. It took us almost 3 years with the technique of container gardening, almost 2 years for fermented chicken feed (when I presented it at an internal conference, some professionals shake their heads and did not agree with, but later a Royal project started promoting it to farmer throughout Thailand.), it’s almost 2 years for composting chicken house, almost 3 years of growing Robusta coffee underneath Litchi trees, more than 50 different types of leaves fed to chicken and ducks to see how the leaves will be eaten in different time of the year so we can reduce the cost of feed, at least 5 different designs of green energy pumps tested so we can pump water from a small stream to our fish pond in dry season, there are successes and failures from year 2006 and still like that. We never stop trying new things to maximize the capacity of ourselves on a 7 acres of land. We read at least 30 books and 100 articles a year to look for something from others’ experiences. We often organize field visits for our family to other places as well, at least 6 times a year, so we will learn from others and spend time to exchange ideas, and we see that it’s vary valuable moment.
, we love to share our findings and experiences, and at the same time, we also want to listen and see from what others are doing and having experiences. We always open for people to visit our farm so they will see and also many times, they make good suggestions for us to make improvement, or sometimes they help us to build connection with others who are experts in a specific area which we are not technical and agronomy background. There are channels which we are trying to share and exchange such as; facebook, email, articles, booklet, workshop and conference, through UHDP training programs, and Leklek’s mom, Da, as the “spokesperson� for our small arm.
To start and to finish any works, we pray and thank our Creator God for everything, as it’s mentioned in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (CEV) 18 Whatever happens, keep thanking God because of Jesus Christ. This is what God wants you to do. We believe in the prayer and power of our almighty God and we know that He has a plan for our family. We are His servant and want to serve Him as the best we can. To run a farm and Home in Garden, we started with prayer in 2006, and continue to pray and thank God until now. People may not believe that; - Our rice field and plants have been protected even though, our neighbor’s affected by pest and diseases. - Our farm production, especially rice, has been increased from the same size of land. - Our chicken and ducks have been protected from flue and other diseases, when all our neighbor’s destroyed. - Honey bees and birds help us to manage pest and some insects. “Who can command those little flying things to come to our farm?” God is using us to become a blessing through; - Sharing of our rice seed when our neighbors come and ask for it. - Sharing our experiences through different channels; farm visit from people of different nations-at least 8 countries and more than 30 ethnicities, workshop and conference both in Thailand and other countries-at least 6 times a year. - Sharing our meals those produced from the farm and we call it, Healthy Food. - And sharing through this booklet. God also puts His heart into us to serve people, when He gave us the vision 2011 for UHDP to reach out to marginalized people in the golden triangle region of Southeast Asia, and has provided us with tools which are FaM and Wam.