Food Security – INTG Talk 17th Jan & Video from Pestnet

Posted by Ricky Ward on Jan 15, 2012 | 1 comment

342nd Meeting – Tuesday, January 17th 2012: “Getting Real about Food in the World: Food Security and Small Farmers”. A talk and presentation by Professor Lindsay Falvey

At an AIST (Australian Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology) seminar last November, Andre Drenth (University of Queensland) gave a talk entitled The Impact of Globalisation and Plant Diseases on Food Security. This was a fascinating history of agriculture, input technologies, trade, biosecurity, pathogens, and the importance of crop protection.

The lessons from the talk are summarised in a slide which stated:
By far the most efficient way to improve production to be able to feed the world we need to reduce crop losses, currently estimated at 42%
Agricultural production needs to increase 2.3% a year to just meet global food demand (at present we increase it by 1.5% a year)
We are facing the greatest global challenge ever as a discipline
I asked Andre if I can send the talk to Pestnet members. Rather than the PDF file which is rather large, and there are some copyright issues, he has suggested people who are interested in this subject can go to: http://www.apsnet.org/publications/webcasts/Webcasts/ADrenth/player.html
Andre made a similar presentation on food security and plant pathology at an APS meeting in the US, and it has been made into a webcast.
It is well worth watching!

Coffea arabica – Ethiopian Holly

Posted by Ricky Ward on Dec 25, 2011 | 0 comments

An African Xmas Tree in Chiang Mai

While Europeans may miss their traditional green and red holly over Christmas in Chiang Mai people from the Horn of Africa can find one of their most precious exports growing in abundance  in the wooded hills south of the road to Pai at Sop Poeng in Mae Daeng District just a few kilometres East of  the Mok Fah Waterfall.

Here in a large area of forest managed by the Watershed Unit of the Forest Department native trees including notably larger Terminalia bellirica have been retained and others , especially Dipterocarpus turbinatus have been planted. The understorey has been greatly modified but appears to be free of weeds and everywhere Coffee shrubs are planted.

If you visit be sure to go and see the trees mentioned above and also many Hopea odorata seedlings growing there for community planting in well watered stream side environments. Perhaps your village has such a place and you might ask for some to take away.  You might even consider asking for trees for the Tree Help for Flooded Siam II project?

Tree Help for Flooded Siam II

Posted by Ricky Ward on Dec 24, 2011 | 1 comment

In November we suggested as a way to help the people of the flooded Chaophraya plain whose gardens had died, people in the  north could grow trees and send south to plant.

Staff of the Forest Department have warmed to this idea and arrangements have been made for the Nakhorn Sawan Forest Nursery – คุณ สุจิตรา หัวหน้าสวนรุกขชาตินครสวรรค์  โทร.089-4370059 -to receive plants donated by Chiang Mai forest nurseries. In Nakhorn Sawan the trees will be transferred to large potting bags to grow to a size where the survival after planting should be high. See City Now for the latest on this story.

The central plain of Siam once was dominated by great trees of the Dipterocarpaceae family, particularly Dipterocarpus alatus (Yang Na) and Hopea odorata  (Takien) both of which have this year been grown in large numbers in Chiang Mai.  For example the Heuy Keow Nursery & Arboretum have over 2000 Yang Na and 1000 Takien, Khun Nikom of the Chang Peuk Hotel has around 10,000 Yang Na grown from seed collected at Wat Chedi Luang and the Watershed Unit Nursery at Sop Poeng , Mae Daeng has 5000 Takien seedlings.

  If we estimate 30,000 seedlings were sent for planting and just to suppose they were planted in the fashion of the avenue on the ChiangMai-Lamphun road the number would be sufficient to line only 225 km of road. Considering there are many thousands of kilometres of highways, minor roads streams and canals on the plain finding suitable places for planting should not be difficult.

The present problem we face is how to transport the trees from Chiang Mai.

People returning  towards Bangkok after the New Year holidays with space in their pick-up trucks are being asked to volunteer to take a load of seedlings to Nakhorn Sawan.

Please contact Khun Jumpot of the Nurseries Section on 0819102130 , or Ricky 0849859668 to speak English,if you are able to help, either at the time suggested or at a later date.

Trees & Seeds on TV 7 Monday 26th 23:45

Posted by Ricky Ward on Dec 24, 2011 | 1 comment

Chiang Mai residents may recall the hype in 2010 about the so-called “Chiang Mai Iam” ,  pronounced Ye-em meaning best which some would prefer to call “Chiang Mai Yeah” – Yeah meaning really bad. Associated with Chiang Mai Yeah was “Keow Suay Hom” supposedly about greening and perfuming the city.

One year on and we see the results – accelerated destruction of trees and totally asphalt surrounds of the two new municipal buildings – City Hall & the Bus Station.

Folk may also have noticed in 2010 the ever present crew of TV Burapa who conducted countless interviews. Where they ended up is anyone’s guess but just last November 2011 the crew reappeared and requested an interview with tree seed collector and member of Gum Hak Doi Suthep Ricky Ward, and a photo from that encounter appears below.

The afternoon discussion was all about local trees and seeds and an edited version will appear on TV Channel 7 this Monday 26th in the evening at 23:45 hrs, as part of the “Krabi Meur 1″ program.

Smoking Season – Fires,smoke & haze begins

Posted by Ricky Ward on Dec 3, 2011 | 2 comments

For some years Chiang Mai residents have had the honor of working with a particularly diligent public servant Khun Sunya Thuntakob stationed at Chiang Mai Provincial Office ( Sala Glang) campaigning to increase public awareness of the hazards of open burning, forest fire and smoke haze.

Khun Sunya, on the right in the picture below,  has now been transferred to work at Lumphun and his job has been in Chiang Mai has been handed over to Khun Payat  (Mobile 081 950 2197) on the left.

  This photo was taken during the opening ceremony for Environment activities on 2nd December 2011 during which a deputy of the governor of Chiang Mai delivered an address where he spoke about various problems we face including annual burning.   Present at the ceremony in addition to a lively Symphonic Band from Dara Academy, students from a number of schools, public servants and people manning information booths were some senior army officers.

At the suggestion of Khun Sanya the following photos taken the same morning of deliberate burning of leaves in the army managed recreation area around the dam at Huey Teng Tao were show to the officer commanding Thailand’s northern region.

Fires lit by people at Huey Teng Tao and on other adjacent properties managed by the army is a perennial problem and fires often sweep into the adjacent Doi Suthep-Pui National Park.  While the unusually cool and wet hot season at the beginning of 2011 saw much improved air quality and far less fire than a typical year, circumstances early in 2010 were quite the opposite. The Google Earth image below, taken in March 2010 shows an area at Huey Teng Tao burnt that year.

On the left of the picture is a rectangular stand of teak trees. The area on the right was planted out with over 5000 native trees to mark the 80th birthday of His Majesty the King. After destruction of the area by fire, the land was subjected to an army tank training exercise which knocked down many of the surviving trees.  The tank tracks are clearly visible in the picture.

  (Click on the picture to see a large image)

We wish  Khun Payat  well in his new position and hope that he will be able to persuade the army to cooperate in reducing the problems of fire and smoke and sponsoring lasting revegetation of lands it manages with indigenous trees.

The Climate is still here but where is Durban ?

Posted by Ricky Ward on Nov 30, 2011 | 0 comments

This morning, not having noticed anything in the press about COP17, the UN Conference of parties to its Climate Change Convention, presently meeting in Durban in the Natal province of South Africa, I decided to do a web search.

So I went to the site of Thailand’s most read English language paper the Bangkok post and searched for “Durban”. This produced two hits, one being an opinion piece from a Eurocrat and the other from the top UNOcrat.

Aljazeera.net gave about 20 reports with much more of substance. Aljazeera also mentions Occupy COP17 , which you might guess is a civil society attempt to raise issues which many, or in some cases apparently all, in government would prefer to avoid.

Our Chiang Mai comrade Tomoko from the Asia Pacific Women’s Law and Development organisation is at Durban to support the lobbying efforts of APWLD members, so Chiang Mai is not entirely left out of the picture.

In addition to Tomoko’s presence we all can participate by reading the  Occupy COP17 blog and posting our comments.

The beginning of December marks what has become Thai Environment Week and coincides with celebrations of Father’s Day and the King’s Birthday. To mark this a talk fest is happening at JJ Market, next to the Kham Tien plant market in Chiang Mai town and a parade and cycling activities are also planned.

Perhaps folk may wish to participate and highlight Chiang Mai’s failure to face the climate challenge and send a resolution of solidarity to Occupy COP17.

PS I have not yet been sent a program for the Chiang Mai events in English.  Here are some meeting minutes in Thai.

“Alternatives to ‘Development…”

Posted by Ricky Ward on Nov 14, 2011 | 0 comments

“Alternatives to ‘Development’:

The Construction and De-construction of Asia within the Trans-Border Context”

(English – Thai : with simulteous translation)

Date : Thursday 24th, November 2011
Time: 08:15 – 12:30 hrs.
Venue : Social Research Institute,Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai