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Development
and promotion of soil doctor program for sustainable land
and agricultural management practices in Lancang-Mekong
countries project is developed under Lancang-Mekong cooperation,
aiming at supporting and exchanging knowledge, practices
and technologieson land development, including building
farmer (soil doctors) networking, for sustainable land management
and agriculture in the Lancang-Mekong sub-region. This is
seen as a keyto lay a foundation for the agricultural sector
stability in order to support the countries sustainable
economic development policy. |
| Thailand
agricultural sector faces various challenges such as natural
resources degradation, high cost production,water scarcity
and flooding in agricultural areas, expansion of urban communities,
farmers limited knowledge on agricultural management practices,
and climate change. These challenges impair the farmer’s
competitiveness and causingan income inequality. Land Development
Department (LDD) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives,
then, initiated the ' Volunteer Soil Doctor' in year 1992.
Initially, the so-called “ Soil Doctors ” refer to the LDD
staff. WhileThailand faced with rising |
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| problems of
land degradation with no longer successfully deal solely
on LDD limited staff, a certain number of selected farmers
have been, therefore, recruited towork in partnership with
the LDD’s staff. These farmers are well-trained andassigned
on voluntary basis. Therefore, the name given to them iswidely
accepted as “ Volunteer Soil Doctors ”. In the past few
decades, Volunteer Soil Doctors is constantly being developed
and farmers can greatly improve soil and agricultural productivity
as well as increase the competitiveness and reduce the poverty
of the households. Soil doctor program is therefore considered
as one of strategic approaches an important strategic approach
in scaling out of sustainable land and agricultural management
practices. |
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Recently,
soil doctor program is being scale up as part of the implementation
plan under global soil partnership (GSP) on technical cooperation,
policy, education, awareness, and extension in support of
the soil and land resource. By promoting the establishment
of a farmer-to-farmer training system, the soil doctor program
aims to build the capacity of smallholder farmers on the
sustainable soil and land management practicesand, by doing
so, support governmental agencies working on agricultural
extension at the farm level, promoting broader impact on
sustainable land and agricultural management |
| practices. Development
and promotion of soil doctor program for sustainable land
and agricultural management practices in Lancang-Mekong
countries project is therefore aiming at promoting and supporting
the empowerment of farmers in the Lancang-Mekong sub-region
in sustainable land and agriculture to eradicate hunger
and achieve food security under the Sustainable Development
Goals. |
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