Fruit Production and Distribution: Risks of Beautification and ... - RCSD

Fruit Production and Distribution:Risks of Beautification and Standardization of FruitChingchai Methaphat 1 PhD, MPHANCR Workshop “Human security and religious certainty in Southeast Asia”,Chiang Mai 15-17 January 2010AbstractIn this paper, based on ethnographic fieldwork from 2006 to 2008, I explore how farmers produce fruitin an eastern Thai community. I argue that with the market demand for beautiful and standard fruit,farmers, in order to produce the beautiful fruit, have to apply agrochemicals including chemicalpesticides in the process of fruit production. In so doing, they risk their own or their workers’ healthfrom exposure to chemical hazards in order to maximize economic benefits. I problematize the ways inwhich beautification and standardization of fruit – from orchard to market – have been undertaken, andargue that fruit producers are the most at risk.Key words: health and economic risks, agrochemical risks, fruit production, farmers, ThailandIntroductionMay is a month of the annual fruit festival of the east of Thailand. In May 2008 Iobserved the so-called “Amazing Thailand World Durian Festival,” in Chanthaburiand the opening ceremony of the “Fruits and Good Things of Klaeng Festival” inRayong. They promote marketing of fruits and their products to the pubic and to bothdomestic and international tourists. In the festivals there are three main activities:parade floats, beauty contestants, and fruits competitions. Parade floats were madefrom cars decorated with various kinds of seasonal fruits including durian, rambutans,mangosteens, pineapple and others carried miniature representations of historicalplaces, persons, or events. Some parade floats showed slogans signifying their localcommunities or encouraging readers to participate in constructive activities – such asdrug abuse prevention. Statements or slogans on parade floats not only reflectedchallenges or resolutions of local communities but also motivated audiences toparticipate in global market. For example, a statement read: “After harvesting fruits,1 Medical anthropologist & lecturer at Department of Health Education, Faculty of Public Health, BuraphaUniversity, Chonburi, 20131 Thailand. E-mail address: chingchai@buu.ac.th

Chingchai Methaphat 3but their skins were flawless and beautiful. In short, beauty and shape of the fruitshave primacy in winning competition.Observing the fruit festivals and the fruit market, I learned that beauty reallymattered. It is important not only for beauty contestants and parade floats, but also forthe fruits themselves. In the festival competition, rewards belong to the mostbeautiful. In the market too, the highest price is for the beautiful fruits. The exchangevalue does not depend on quality of taste but quality of physical beauty. Therefore, infruit production, the beauty of the fruits is the important quality, which orchardistsaim for. How do they practice in order to produce attractive fruit products? And whatare the implications of making beautiful fruits? In this paper, I look behind thebeautiful surfaces of the fruit, to see how the beauty that is so valued gets produced,and what consequences this production has for the social world, the health, and theenvironment of the farmers.This paper is based on an eleven-month ethnographic fieldwork conducted ina community in Klaeng district, Rayong province during 2006 and 2007-8. It is a partof my dissertation about risk of chemical pesticide use among fruit farmers(Methaphat 2009). The fieldwork included questionnaire survey of householdrepresentatives, participant observation, in-depth interviews, and group discussion.The FruitIn Ban Noen Durian and their neighboring villages, orchardists prefer growing durian.They told me that durian has higher price than other fruits. When farmers ask oneanother about quantity of fruit sold, they often indicate a number of tons of duriansold but a number of kilograms of other kinds of fruits. Although growing durianrequires meticulous care, harvesting it does not take much time. Merchants ormiddlemen come and harvest by themselves; orchardists usually help them collectingand loading in trucks, and get a lump of money (ngoen kôn) right away in theorchards. Unlike durian, harvesting mangosteen needs much longer time because thefruit does not mature or ripen in the same time, so farmers do not receive a big lumpof money.The price of rambutan is usually unstable, while the labor wage is relativelyhigh, so not many farmers continue growing rambutans. In 2002, I had seen that some

Chingchai Methaphat 6and three sons. He works in the orchard in the morning and early afternoon and therest of the day is his spare time; he also gets extra jobs in temporary construction orany kinds of requested job from local schoolteachers or friends. He and his wife get6,000 baht a month. But they often gain extra incomes from taking temporary jobs inthe community.Similarly, Lan, 45, and his wife, a couple from a northeastern province,together with his brother, have been working in a 70-rai orchard for a Bangkokianbusinessman for more than two decades. He was employed in different orchardsbefore being employed by his present boss. His boss will visit him once in a whileand come to harvest the fruit to sell in Bangkok market. Whenever he wants to buyfertilizers or chemicals, he gets them from his boss’s friend’s shop. Usually, Lan andhis wife work in the orchard in the early morning until 2:00 or 3:00 pm; then, he goesto catch fish for sell and consume in his family. He is very good at fishing. He cancatch as much as 80 kilograms of fish. Besides working in his boss’s orchard, he alsorents a five-rai orchard from a neighbor to produce durian and rambutan. He bought anew pick-up truck on installments a few years ago. However, some villagers gossipedthat he steals from his boss to become richer.His boss wants him to use bio-substances instead of pesticides because theyare harmful to him and family. His boss bought many magazines and books for him toread about organic agriculture, bought a PH-measure device for both soil and water,and taught him how to evaluate the soil and water conditions.Uncle Tia and Aunt Po, another couple from a northeastern province, hadworked for an absentee-employer for many years, but later their employer could notpay their wages so that they rented the orchard from him. Uncle Tia told me that sincehis employer owed him, he could not help but had to rent the orchard to take risk infruit production.Phong and his wife are lucky. After working for an absentee-employer formany years, they are rewarded for taking good care of the orchard by being allowedto produce the fruits without paying rental fee. They produce mangosteen, rambutan,and salak and gain income of hundreds of thousands each year. Their trees arebeautiful and fruitful. But they use very strong and expensive pesticides, especially to

Chingchai Methaphat 7produce mangkhut piu man, glossy-skinned mangosteens. Their mangosteens arequalified for export.Those who work for present-employers – such as Uncle Man, Uncle Yung,and Phi Su, have different degrees of freedom in getting extra income. Uncle Man andhis wife, a northeastern couple, have been working in their employer’s orchard fornearly 30 years. With 6,000 baht of monthly wage for both of them, they can havesometimes in each day to take care of their own five rai orchard, which they recentlybought from a neighbor. He told me that he could earn extra income from sellingvegetables, and his jackfruit was also productive. Previously, he earned ninetythousands from the fruit. They wanted to quit from working in their boss’ orchardwhen their only son graduated in the computer engineering, but their boss asked themto continue caring for his orchard. He told me that in Ban Noen Durian context, heand his wife are only orchard’s employees (luk chang or khon suan), but in hishometown, they are thoa kae, entrepreneurs, who have a lot of land and cattle andmoney for lending his neighbors. Their wealth resulted from working hard and savingfor many years. Regarding chemical risk, Uncle Man told me that, although he andhis wife have worked with chemicals for decades, they are still healthy because “wefollow the instructions on the label and wear protective devices,” Uncle Man said.By contrast, Uncle Yung and Phi Doung, a couple from the northeasternprovince, who migrated to eastern region when they were children, are relatively poorand trying to make ends meet. Since Phi Doung followed her parents to seekemployment when she was a child, she did not go to school and could neither read norwrite. But her husband, with primary education, can read. Uncle Nan, a localpolitician and their employer, told me that he hired the couple just mainly forspraying pesticides. I observed Uncle Yung and Phi Doung sprayed pesticides threetimes. Their employer mixed chemical solution for them, and Uncle Yung sprayed thechemicals while Phi Doung held the hose. Their 12 years old daughter and sevenyears old granddaughter, being absent from school, followed them while they werespraying the chemicals. Phi Doung often reminded the girls to be in the car and notcome out to climb the trees. But their granddaughter often jumped out from the car toclimb durian trees and played along with them. The truck windows stayed opened, sothe chemical droplets entered. After spraying pesticides, they went to fish and rest.

Chingchai Methaphat 8Besides the monthly wage, their boss’s wife often gave the gifts and compensatedcash in case they sold produce from the orchard.Unfortunately, Phi Su, a 48 year old woman from a northeastern province whois married with two children, told me that her boss, a local school teacher, did notallow her to earn any extra income from other jobs outside the orchard. She also wasnot allowed to sell any products – such as chilies, vegetables or other produce –grown in the orchard for personal income besides from 4,000 baht of monthly wage.Now, with only 4,000 baht of monthly income, she tries to make ends meet for fourlives – her elderly and ill mother, her 15 years old daughter, who also is often ill ofanemia, and her nine-year-old son. Both of her children are going to school.Fruit producers are both men and women, but usually men take the lead whilewomen take helping roles in terms of decision and action. Men usually decide what toproduce, how to produce, what chemicals should be used and when they should spraychemicals.Making Standard Fruits and Agricultural IndustrializationThe success of producing durian (thamsuan thurian) depends upon the extent oforchardists’ ability to control which degree of product quality will be, how manyfruits will be produced, and when their fruits will be in the market (Office ofResearch and Development 1994: 1). 3This excerpt from “Technologies for Fruit Production in the Eastern Region”emphasizes that the ability of orchardists to control when their trees produce theirfruit is the key to success in producing market quality durian. What kind of duriandoes the market define as good quality? To what extent does beauty count for a gooddurian? What is the good time for orchardists to get a better profit?1. Classifying and Valuing the FruitAccording to the Department of Agriculture (Office of Research andDevelopment 1994), some durian fruits are not required for market. That includesfruits which are partially rotten (due to either diseases or insects), undersized oroversized, or misshaped, or dwarf, or with wet core (sai suem). The market-3 My translation and emphasis is mine.

Chingchai Methaphat 9unqualified durians can be sold to a manufacture for making either thurian kuan,durian jam or thurian thôt, durian chips. The price for such durian is around two baht(0.06 USD) a kilogram.The market-qualified are sub-classified into different grades according to theirquality, and the price is determined by the grade. Market quality of durian dependson, besides from its maturity, its physical appearance including shape, size, color, andfreshness. The export quality of durian, the highest grade and price, should weigharound 2.50-4.50 kilograms, that is, neither too small nor too large. Such a size fitsinto a box for transportation overseas. The shape of a good quality fruit must bebalanced round and slightly-coned-shaped. One fruit should contain three and a halfto four flesh segments. Its skin must be green, and its thorns are straight – not twisted,collapsed or broken. Green thorns are favored. The skin should be flawless with noblemishes. The stem of the fruit should be green and long. Such grade ‘A’ (firstgrade) quality of durian is the quality for export. However, it does not mean that theflesh of durian is not important. But, again, the flesh of durian is judged by its colorand percentage of starch (paeng). Its color must be slightly yellowish at the sellingtransaction.Before shipping, durian inspectors – usually from the Department ofAgriculture – come and check percentage of starch and maturity – at the exportingfactories. The idea is to prevent factories from exporting “young durian” (thurian on)to the international markets. Since the fruit are not yet ripe, the taste of fruit could notbe tested but the percentage of starch. The durian qualified for export must have dryweight of flesh at least 27, 30, and 32 percent for kradumthong, chani, and monthongvarieties respectively. However, besides checking percent of dry weight, the inspectoralso checks both outer appearance and inner characteristics. The inner qualities ofdurian include flesh color, stone color, and flavor of the fruit. The outer appearanceincludes peduncle, fruit spine, and carpel strip. That is to say, the physicalcharacteristics of those inedible portions of the fruit are fundamentally importantqualities for exportation.Over sized or under sized durian weigh either less than two and a half kilos orover five kilograms. The selling price for such durian, even if they are perfect in other

Chingchai Methaphat 10respects, is far less than that for the market-qualified durian. The same is also true incase of other kinds of fruit.Even in the domestic market, the fruit is classified into different grades basedon shapes and qualities – especially physical appearance, the beauty. Like beautyqueens on stage, the beautiful and good shaped fruits are elegantly arranged in fruitstands whereas the spotted, twisted, and unshaped fruits – like the failed beautycontestants who step back and sneak out from the stage – are piled up on the ground.Exchange value of the former is much higher than the latter.From my observation of the durian cycle in the field, the harvest season ofdurian in 2007-2008 was between late March and beginning of June 2008. But mostdurian fruits were harvested between late April and mid-May. Over 50 percent ofproducts were in the market for only two weeks. Therefore, the price of durian variedwidely between weeks, days or even within a day. For example, in 1988-89, the priceof chani durian in Chanthaburi was as high as 85 baht a kilogram in late March, but inmid-June as low as 8-12 baht (Office of Research and Development 1994).Sometimes, the price difference in one day was five baht. The price of mônthôngdurian dropped from 45 baht a kilogram in March to 10 baht in May. Therefore, inorder to have a profitable price, orchardists must know how to make durian bloom,bear and harvest fruits with good quality to meet the market at the right time. Theright time must be at the beginning of harvest season but must not be too early. Forinstance, Tan, a 43 years old married man with two children, told me that although hewas able to harvest his durian in January 2008, he got the price only 36 baht a kilo,which was lower than the price in March. The reason was that the exporting factory(long) had not yet opened for exporting durian. Instead of being exported and gettingthe better price, his fruits were sold in domestic market. It is interesting to note thatdurian exporters open their factories in the eastern region only in the harvest seasonbetween late February and the end of June or early July; then they move to thesouthern provinces.Other fruits also had unstable prices. In late March 2008, an export agentstarted buying 200 baht per kilogram of the grade A mangosteen on the first day, andthe second day at 180 baht a kilogram, and the following days the price went down to150, 120, 100 and 80 baht a kilogram. At the end of the season, the price was around

Chingchai Methaphat 119-12 baht per kilogram. It sounds ridiculous that in March nobody could harvestmangosteen as much as a kilogram a day. Jan, a 12 years old girl, told me that she gottwo of grade A mangosteen and drove motorcycle to sell at a factory, and she wasdelighted for getting 50 baht. Only two fruits value fifty baht! I asked some friendswho were associated with exporting agent about why they set such a high price fornothing. Some gave me an answer that “it is a market strategy!” On the first day, theycould buy only a few kilogram of mangosteen; they ate them all – not enough forexportation. Some told me that setting such a high price is the way in which they doklet, magical or spiritual and symbolic act. In doing so, the exporting agents believedthat it could draw attention of farmers to the exporting factory. 42. Trust, Value, Beauty, and TasteDurian producers, especially producers who used intensive chemicals, set theiraims at export (long klông or packing in boxes). 5 Chemical-free durian producers didnot aim for exporting their fruits. Uncle Sing, an organic fruit producer, sold only thefully ripe durian – only when the fruit abscised from its tree. He sold the durian at hisfruit stand in front of his house where many people reserved his fruit in advance. Hetold me, “Many come and buy my durian; I don’t have enough fruit to serve theirdemands.” His patrons are those who know him and want to eat organic durian, andthey trust that his durian is really chemical-free. He sets the price of his own durian.But, “the price must be fair,” he said. He told me that some people were verysensitive to chemical-contaminated fruit.Some of my informants who did not use chemicals or who mainly usedbiofertilzers and biopesticides told me that they did not expect to sell their fruit forexport because the requirements are too high. In order to produce such a quality ofdurian, they have to invest a lot of money to buy pesticides and fertilizers and theyalso will risk their bodies to expose to chemicals while spraying chemicals. PhuyaiLee, 55 years old, who has quite a handsome income from rubber orchards, told methat he only watered his durian and did not care how much the tree would have fruit.4 Most factories’ owners are Sino-Thai businessmen; they have contacted business partners in Taiwan or China.They told me that they just followed the orders; their counterparts set the price according to the oversea markets.5 Long klông literally means, “put into a box;” it refers to packing process in an exporting factory, and in thiscontext it refers to exportation of fruit. The fruit that can be put into a box must be qualified as standard set.

Chingchai Methaphat 12He did not want to spray or hire someone to spray chemicals to his trees for healthsafety reasons. He did not care about the beauty of the fruit because, “I just producefor eating in the family and give away to my friends,” he said. Aunt Taeo, a 56-yearoldwidow woman, told me that she changed from using chemicals to using anorganic mixture because she did not have money to buy chemicals. She producedbiofertilizers, biohormone, and biopesticides to use in her orchard. Although AuntTaeo mainly produced bioorganic fruit - only used limited chemicals in some years,she could not set the price and did not get price as high as Uncle Sing. The marketand traders did not give special value to chemical-free durian. She did not expect toproduce durian for export. She showed me some black durian; they became blackbecause of being infected with phlia paeng. She said, “The market does not buy it. Itis not beautiful so that it should not be given to anyone. I keep and eat it.” She alsotold me that the black, ugly durian is more delicious than others. “It is spoiled onlythe outer skin,” she said. She told me that phlia paeng spoiled fruit’s skin and broughtsugar to the fruit. Some farmers explained the flesh of the misshapen, twisted, andsmall durian has more concentrated starch than those of the full segment fruit is moreflavorful. Therefore, they are more creamy and sweet. The spotted and flawed skin offruit also signifies that such fruit has less or no contamination from chemicalscompared to the beautiful fruit. San told me, “If you see marks of insects on the fruit,such marks tell us that insects ate the fruit and survived; thus, it also safe for human.”It is also interesting to note that the ugly fruit is widely used to justify as a sign ofchemical-free, food-safety. For instance, in an occasional market, I observed a guytried to sell his small and ugly longkong by saying, “Longkong rai san krap,chemical-free longkong! They were in such a high tree that the chemicals could notreach them.” That is to say, he also used pesticides in fruit production, but he useddiscourse of chemical-free associated to the unbeautiful image of his fruit as a sellingstrategy.I also have learned from many farmers about the inverse relationship betweenthe taste and the beauty of fruit. It is true for not only durian but also other kinds offruit such as small or misshapen mangosteen are more sweet and delicious than thebeautiful and good-shaped ones.

Chingchai Methaphat 133. Preparation for Making Beautiful FruitsDurian trees usually bear their first fruit at the age of five years. The mostfruitful age of trees is in between six and nine years, which is considered as the age ofa young adult, who is sexually active and productive. That is to say, the tree at theseages is healthy, youthful and fruitful. Usually, the tree can bear fruit effectively untilthe age of 14 years. However, they can still produce fruit until death, but theirproductivity would be less.3.1 Preparing Orchards: Keeping Orchards TidyMost orchardists keep the orchards tidy and clean, but some of those whoplant multicrops let their orchards grow untidy. Most orchardists sprayed herbicides –such as glyphosate and paraquat – to destroy grass in their orchards, especially in theshady areas of durian trees. However, some cut grass by using a motorized mower. Iasked many of them why they have to clean grass instead of letting it grow naturally.I learned that active and industrious orchardists do not let their orchards rok, becomemessy or untidy. The term “rok” also connotes a sense of potential risk or danger inthat the messy orchard might be a nest of poisonous or harmful creatures, includingsnakes. I learned from some orchardists that previously many snakes were inorchards, and they sneaked away whenever people sprayed herbicides. A clean andtidy (sa-at and pen rabiap) orchard also reflects to what extent the orchardist devoteshim/herself to the orchard. Aside from wanting their orchards to look tidy and clean,they told me that cleaning grass is very important for enhancing productivity of thetrees. If they let grass grows naturally, it will compete with their trees in consumingfertilizers that are given to the tree. Without grass or weed, the wind can blow throughthe bushes and branches and leaves of the tree touch the sunlight and have betterventilation. Cleaning the under-tree areas can help not only prevent some diseases orinsects spreading from grass and earth to the tree, but also reduce the breedingsources of insects. Keeping the territory near the stem clear and dry (sok) also helpstrees bud flowers faster. Keeping territory under the tree clean and dry is not only acommon practice among durian farmers but also a crucial technique to preventdiseases and hasten blooming recommended by durian technical experts (Office ofResearch and Development 1994).

Chingchai Methaphat 14Why do they prefer herbicides rather than mowing under the trees? “Quickand easy,” many orchardists told me. “You just buy a drug, spray it, and the grass willdie.” Besides, the cost of using a mower is far more expensive than using herbicides,in terms of both money and time. The cost of gasoline is as expensive as one dollar aliter (in 2007-8). Although the cost of herbicides is not cheap, it subdues grass muchlonger than mowing.In addition, some orchardists believe that using herbicides can fertilize theirtrees. As Som, a 42-year-old orchardist, told me, “I use gramoxone (paraquat) to killgrass in my orchard because it not only kills grass but it also becomes fertilizer. Itbecomes fertilizer because it is salty.” Som also gave his advice to his friends. Theyshared a common belief about the benefit of using paraquat herbicide. I asked some ofagriculture experts if paraquat could be a fertilizer. They did not think it is becausethere is no nutritional element. However, it is possible that the decomposed grassbenefits to the trees. I realize that saltiness is an apparent quality of fertilizers.Although different kinds of herbicides available in the agrochemical market,most fruit orchardists use two kinds of herbicides: paraquat and glyphosate. Theformer is regarded as ya nock, quick-acting drug (chemical herbicide) while the latteris ya dutsüm, absorbing or long-lasting drug (chemical herbicide). Once paraquat hasbeen sprayed, you can see grass die instantly before your eyes, but it does not diethoroughly; it will re-grow after less than two weeks. Glyphosate, by contrast, doesnot kill grass instantly but it is gradually absorbed and the grass gradually diesthoroughly. The chemical is absorbed into its roots. Therefore, some farmers thinkglyphosate is more dangerous than paraquat to their trees and to themselves. Theythink that glyphosate can destroy roots of their trees while paraquat does not. It is alsotrue for their bodies as San, 45-year-old-farmer, expressed his opinion: “Glyphosate isabsorbed into our bodies and destroys the internal organs – lung, liver and kidney –insidiously without being known.” When farmers use glyphosate to kill grass in theirorchards, they do not spray in the area near to the trunks in order to save roots of thetrees. Some cut grass near the trunk’s area to avoid harming tree’s roots. Usually, inone year, orchardists apply herbicides twice to clean their orchard: First the beginningof the rainy season and later at the end of rainy season.

Chingchai Methaphat 15Using herbicides is ubiquitous in the community; not only is it sprayed inorchards but also on the roadsides, in backyards and other areas. One day in lateAugust 2007, while I was about to have lunch in an open-air food shop closed to aroad in the village, I saw a TAO’s car spraying paraquat along the roadsides. Itsmelled very bad. I had to hold my breath and cover my nose. The food shop’s ownerrushed to cover a water container and told me, “They are spraying ya ka ya (literally,a grass-killing drug), herbicide, gramoxone… they spray around two-three times amonth.” I also learned that villagers were not informed that TAO would sprayherbicide beforehand. It is not uncommon to see villagers, usually men, sprayingherbicides in their orchards in both the morning and the late afternoon when I rodemy bicycle around the village. Sometimes, I also saw some men coming from buyingfood in the morning market on their bicycles or motorcycles with one plastic bag offood bags and a bottle of paraquat. San jokingly told me, “gramoxone is ya samanpracham ban, an “over-the-counter drug” (OTC meds) or a drug in the “homemedicine cabinet.” That is to say, gramoxone or paraquat is widely used and helpfulfor villagers in the same as the common drugs that they usually use at home whenthey get sick.3.2 Preparing Trees to be Ready to Bloom and Bear FruitsAfter cleaning the land, farmers prepare their trees to ready them forproducing blooms and fruits. Farmers undertake three main tasks to enhanceblooming. First, they enhance healthiness of the trees. They trim unnecessarybranches off to reduce the burden on the trees. Trimming unnecessary branches out ofthe trees can ensure that most leaves are sufficiently exposed to the sunlight. I wastold that trimming small branches stimulate both foliage and blooming. They cutdying branches and small branches which lie in a vertical direction. They prefer tokeep horizontal branches. They also treat some afflicted trees with chemicals orprevent them from possible diseases, especially Phytopthora palmivora Butler orknown by the common name of phytop – fungi that cause root and stem rots. For

Chingchai Methaphat 16instance, Sang injected Foli-R-Fos 400 6 into durian trunks by using big needles andsyringes, which is called fang khem, implanting needle, 7 to prevent phytopthoradisease.Second, they enhance their trees to accumulate food sufficiently for raisingleaves until all leaves become fully mature. Usually, orchardists need at least twobatches of mature leaves to make sure that the leaves will be able to photosynthesizeenough food to produce fruits. However, some orchardists make their trees producethree batches of leaves to insure capacity of the trees in raising their fruits. In eachbatch, leaves take more or less a month to grow fully mature.To enhance the healthiness of the trees, orchardists also fertilize trees; usually,they put 1-3 kilograms per a tree of pui bamrung, nourishing chemical fertilizer.Some orchardists use chicken manure for their trees, instead. Others give their trees amain nutrient, ready-made carbohydrate, which is so-called ahan thangduan, “foodwhile-on-the-run.”They regard such food as fast food or ready-made or instant food,which can be immediately used. The fast food includes glucose, humus acid, andgranular fertilizer, pui klet. The ingredients are mixed with water and sprayed onleaves of the tree. It is believed that the ready-made food-while-on-the-run will makethe tree faster produce many young leaves. The food is consumed by plants – notthrough its roots, but through the leaves (mouths of leaves).Orchardists have to keep their tree’s leaves as perfect as possible. Manyorchardists helped me understand the life of durian by using a family metaphor. Thetree is a family. The trunk, together with its root, is the father, whose functions are tostructurally support the family and to find materials and send them to the leaves forcooking. Like mother’s function, the leaves of durian photosynthesize food for thefamily, especially their children, the fruit. The healthy leaves are the key indicatingthe extent to which trees can bear fruit. The more perfect, glossy and dark green theleaves are, the more fruitful and beautiful their fruits will be. Therefore, before6 Foli-R-Fos 400 is a trade name for a fungicide and microbiocide named mono- and di-potassium salts ofphosphorous acid. It is a systemic fungicide for phytopthora root rots and cranker (http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/biopesticides/ingredients/factsheets/factsheet_076416.htm last accessed December 10, 2008)7 The term fang khem in Thai has the same meaning with acupuncture, which is used to treat some human’sillnesses. The word is appropriated to refer to injecting chemical pesticides into the tree in order to treat or preventroot and stem rot diseases caused by fungi. Farmers usually use the term ya, drug, referring to chemical pesticidesin the same meaning with ya, drug, for treating human’s illnesses.

Chingchai Methaphat 17blooming, trees should have thick and perfect foliage. Many orchardists try anymeans in which they can keep their trees’ leaves as good as possible.But young leaves are often destroyed by phlia khaifa, or phlia khaichae,durian psyllid, among other pests. Psyllid – both young and adult – sucks water andnutrients from the young leaves, causing them to become yellow-spotted, underdeveloped,and abnormally small. The leaves shrink, dry and fall off. In addition topsyllid, African red mites (rai daeng) are insects which have high potential to destroydurian leaves through sucking water and nutrients from mature leaves. Red mites canstrip the leaves off within a couple of days. If the trees fail to produce enough matureleaves, they will delay blooming. That is to say, their fruits will be in the market laterthan others, or worse, their trees might not be healthy enough to produce fruits. Howdo they insure whether their trees would be healthy enough to produce flowers?Farmers must not only prevent the trees from diseases or insects but also enhance theleaves to be fully healthy. Like a healthy mother who needs food to keep her bodyhealthy and drugs to prevent herself from diseases and illnesses, the leaves also needgood food for the trees and drugs (in the case of the tree, pesticides) to prevent themfrom getting diseases. The third crucial task is that farmers have to protect their treesfrom insect pests or diseases.3.3 Chemical Durian versus Seasonal DurianThere are two ways of producing durian: thurian san or chemical durian, andthurian pi or seasonal durian. Whereas seasonal durian producers let their treesproduce fruits as natural course, the chemical durian producers accelerate their treesto produce fruits by using chemicals. Chemical durian requires special nutrients,hormones and chemicals to control the trees to bloom as early as possible whereasseasonal durian or natural durian is given only fertilizers and pesticides. Those whodo not use agrochemicals but biofertilzers, biohormones or biorepellents, also calledtheir fruit natural durian or chemical-free durian (thurian rai san). It is interesting tonote that the term “thurian thammachat” or natural durian does not necessarily meanthat producers do not use chemicals. The term thammachat, the natural, in this senserefers to “the seasonal.” Those who produced durian by using biofertilzers and

Chingchai Methaphat 18biorepellents preferably called their products thurian rai san or thurian chiwaphap,chemical-free durian or bio-durian (bioorganic durian).Both chemical and seasonal durians are given pui bamrung, nourishingfertilizer, and hormone to produce young leaves. Some farmers added fungicides intohormone to prevent fungal diseases. During the young foliage, farmers do not givefertilizer to the trees through the soil and roots because it might cause the youngleaves to fall. They might give nourishing fertilizers three times. Then, they give puireng, enforcing fertilizers, to enhance the trees budding flowers. But they need tohave mature leaves before giving the flower-enforcing fertilizer (pui-reng dôk). At thestage of flower budding, trees need less nitrogen but more phosphorus and potassiumat the end of rainy season. When the cold wind blows, they spray bloom-enforcinghormone (hômon poet tadôk). They also add fungicide into the hormone solution.When flower buds appear, farmers will choi, slightly sprinkle water continually. Theydo not give much water because it might change flower buds into young leaves. If thishappens, they would loss the batch of flowers. Even when flowers are already grownor bloom, if it rains or the trees consume too much water, the trees will produceyoung leaves, and the flowers will drop off. Both chemical and seasonal durianproducers are at risk of losing their chance of having early flowers.Both types of durian producers depend not only the healthiness of the trees butalso the weather conditions. In recent years, the weather conditions have beenunstable; some fruit farmers complained that their trees, although having plentifulfoliage, did not bloom at all. Instead of risking a wait for the cold wind or dried soils,chemical durian producers controlled their own trees by using some chemicals such aspaclobutrazol 8 – plant growth regulator – to set the tree condition for blooming. Thechemical controls the growth of trees through xylem routes. San told me thatregardless of the weather conditions, the trees would bloom when the trees are in adying condition. They produce flowers to expand their offspring as many as possible.However, using such chemicals has negative effects for the trees; their roots are notso capable of absorbing minerals and water as what they were. So farmers have to8 Paclobutrazol is a triazole type plant hormone or plant growth regulator, which retards plant growth by blockinggibberellin biosynthesis. While retarding plant development, it also spurs fruit producing. Paclobutrazol is alsoused as an herbicide; it is “a non-selective, post-emergent herbicide for control of annual grasses, broadleaf weeds,herbaceous plants, woody shrubs and vines” (USDOE-BPA 2000: 2).

Chingchai Methaphat 19nourish their trees very well during this period by giving enough food through theleaves. In doing so, they have to invest a lot of money. Moreover, their trees woulddeteriorate or die after having gone through chemical application. Farmers have torevitalize the trees by using special chemicals and nutrients to alleviate the trees.Some farmers were successful in reviving their trees, but many complained that theylost some trees after using a san, growth regulator chemical. They planted young treesto substitute for the dying ones, but it would take at least another five years for theyoung plants to be able to produce fruit.Using paclobutrazol or bloom-forcing chemicals to the trees, farmers find twocrucial undesired outcomes in the fruits. One, the fruit will have a short stem whichmakes them not of market quality; another, the fruit will take longer time to mature orripen than its natural course. For the former challenge, farmers use gibberellin, plantgrowth regulating hormone, to elongate the stem of the fruit. They apply the synthetichormone at the young fruit stage. For the latter challenge, durian producers spraysome colorizing chemicals to change the near mature fruit into the ripe-color fruit. Itis called khoa si, color-enhancing. In fact, the fruit has not yet ripened but thechemicals colorize its flesh to yellowish as if it were ripe. In doing so, chemicaldurian producers can get the fruits into the market earlier than the seasonal durianproducers. In late March 2008, I observed durian harvesting in Sang’s orchard andfound that many fruits still had young seeds although the flesh looked yellowish andmature. Making chemical durian, Sang had sprayed the color-enhancing chemicalthree days before harvesting. Usually, durian cutters check the fruit through the colorof skin, the sound of beating fruit, and the color of its flesh.3.4 Chemicals and Water: The Necessary Ingredients for MakingBeautiful FruitsWhat kinds of chemicals (or drugs in farmers’ term) do they apply in the leafraisingperiod? Usually, farmers respond to the question by saying “ya kha malaeng,”insecticide; many do not mention the common name or trade name of chemicals. Itappears that name of the chemicals sounds either foreign or rather long to remember.Some told me a complete common name of chemical, but others call the name in

Chingchai Methaphat 20short. For instance, cyper is short for cypermethrin, 9 and metha is formethamidophos. 10 Many called the chemicals by trade names; however, some cannotrecall names of chemicals used. For instance, Uncle So, a 54-year-old man, respondedto my question of chemical name as follows: “So many drugs I used that I could notremember their names.” In fact, farmers use the same kinds of chemicals but, becausedifferent companies manufacture them, they have different names. Usually, when Iasked my informants, instead of telling the chemical names, they went and picked thebottles and showed me and read the name.In fact, farmers use not only one insecticide at a time but also at least twoinsecticides and plant nutrients or hormones. For example, Cham, 45 years old, toldme about spraying drugs in his orchards. He told me that in this period it is importantto have complete and mature leaves. The simple logic is that the leaves as mothersmust be healthy and abundant in order to ensure that they can produce and accumulatefood enough for their fruits and the trees themselves. On September 30, 2007 Iobserved that he together with his wife spraying insecticides for durian in his orchard.He mixed two pesticides together in a 1,000-liter metal container loaded in rot-e-taek,mechanized cart. He mixed 1,000 cc of dicrotophos 11 with 300 cc of ostrine-35 andfoil, additive substance into 1,000 liters of container. He said, “Dicrotophos is forphlia, psyllids; ostrine is ya nôn, worm drug (worm killer).” Why did he mix twopesticides together instead of using only a single one? He told me that each drug haddifferent killing power; mixed drugs would cover more pests and kill better. However,he used less volume of chemicals than that was indicated in the label. In the labelostrine should be used 400 cc per 1000 liters, but since he mixed it with dicrotophos,he used only 300 cc of ostrine. If he sprayed each pesticide separately, he woulddissolve it according to the direction. Mixing them in the same spray would save notonly some money but also his time of exposing to the toxic chemicals. He said hecould spray the same insecticides no more than three consecutive times at the sameorchard; otherwise, it was not effective. “The pests will be resistant to the chemicals if9 Cypermethrin is a pyrethroid class of insecticide (http://www.pesticideinfo.org/Detail_Chemical.jsp?Rec_Id=PC35735 last accessed November 10, 2008).10 Methamidophos is a highly toxic organophosphate insecticide.11 Dicrotophos is an organophorus-classed insecticide which has high and acute toxicity. It is classified into the 1bcategory (highly hazardous) of the WHO’s toxic classification (http://www.pesticideinfo.org/Detail_Chemical.jsp?Rec_Id=PC35045 last accessed November 14, 2008).

Chingchai Methaphat 21I use the same drugs repeatedly. Next time, I will change to starkle (dinotefuran) toavoid drug resistance,” he said. He told me that it would be better to use the samedrug only two times, then change into other drugs for another two consecutive timesbefore changing to the same previously used drugs. He usually sprays every seven toten days or two weeks. The main target pests during raising foliage are phlia kaifa andphlia kra-dot. He showed me young leaves afflicted by phlia kaifa. They look like atiny piece of cotton, pure white, sticking on the young leaves. They suck nutrientfluid, nam liang, so that the leaves shrink and fall.In addition to preventing foliage from being destroyed during raising leaves,farmers have to feed the trees with nutrients or fertilizers or hormones in order tohave healthy green foliage. Usually they add such chemicals together with pesticides.Besides preventing their trees from diseases and feeding them with nutrientsand hormones, farmers have to make sure their trees consume enough water. Duringthis period, if it does not rain, they have to water every other day or two days. Allorchards have a sprinkler water system. Usually, two or three sprinklers supply eachtree. Basically, to have a fruit orchard, a farmer needs quite a big investment, notincluding the price of land and crops, they have to build a big pond to store water andsprinkle system for watering the trees. For example, in Uncle So’s one and a half acreorchard, he has 0.1 acre of pond with 5 meters depth and a sprinkle system. Heinvested almost two hundred thousand baht for the basic structures.When farmers have at least two batches of foliage, it is rather certain that theirtrees would be ready to bud flowers. San, an experienced durian producer, explainedto me that having healthy and abundant foliage is not enough for the trees to bloom;the trees have to be in din sok, dried soil and there has to be a lom nao, cold wind. Tomake the earth seem dried, farmers control watering by reducing duration ofsprinkling.Many farmers complained to me that global warming caused the weatherchange, so it shortened the cool season. This affects their fruit productivity and someorchards do not bloom at all although they look healthy and green foliage. Therefore,some farmers spray some chemicals to force the trees to bloom, as I have discussed inthe section of making chemical durian. Some farmers slightly spray (choi/chop) thechemicals to force their trees blooming, but many let the trees take their fate. It is

Chingchai Methaphat 22interesting to note that those who choi or chop, do not call what they do chemicaldurian, and keeping themselves from labeling the products as chemical durian ispreferable. Most farmers prefer to call their fruits as thurian thammachat, naturaldurian.3.5 Selecting and Pollinating the FlowersThe law of selecting the fittest blooms is applied here to ensure that their fruitswould be qualified for the high market. Farmers whose trees produce too manyflowers have to cut problematic flowers out to save nutrients for the fittest blooms.The problematic flowers are those on small branches or those are too crowded or tooplentiful in the same branch. Ti dôk, beating blossoms, or selecting and cutting durianblooms out from the trees means to thin out the blooms. Uncle Chun has twoorchards; in one, he plants durian and longkong, and in the other, he plants onlymonthong durian. In this durian orchard, his trees are relatively young, just eightyears old. He produces chemical durian only in this orchard, but he treats trees inother orchard as seasonal durian. After spraying growth-regulating chemicals (forexample, paclobutrazol), the trees had too plentiful flowers, so he had to select onlythose who could bear good fruits. The principles of thinning blooms are: to keepflowers which are in big branches to make sure that the branches are strong enough tobear at least two and a half kilograms of fruit, and the blooms should not be toocrowded because they may compete for food and then affect the size and shape offruit. I noticed that there were so plentiful flowers; they appeared in every singlebranch and from the tip to stem of branch. Those who sprayed chemicals to force thetrees blooms had to employ people to thin the flowers out because they were tooabundant. By reducing the number of flowers, they could help save food of the treesfor their fruits.In addition to trimming out flowers, farmers have to help their treespollinating the blooms. There are two kinds of practices in pollination beside fromnatural pollination. First is the so-called patdôk, sweeping blossoms, and second iscalled pha dôk, dissecting blossoms. In the former technique, farmers use broom orpainting brush or brush-like broomstick with a long stick to sweep gently blossoms inorder to enhance pollination. They sweep the blossoms in the evening around 05:00 or

Chingchai Methaphat 2306:00 pm to midnight because blossoms are open during the night. I joined, observedand learned how to sweep blossoms from some farmers; I think that sweepingblossoms is quite fun at the beginning but it really caused pain in my neck after doingit for a while. The sweeper wears a light-torch on his or her forehead, so the longbright light-beam will help him/her see the targeted blossoms. He/she will sweep thebrush softly on the blossoms. For dissecting blossom of chani durian, the dissectorwill cut stamens (male organs) out and keep only the female organ of the bloom; andthen, he collects male pollen grains from monthong blossoms to attach to femaleorgan of the dissected blossoms. During November to December, I observed farmerspollinating their durian in the evening; many of them did it as a family activity.Children climbed up the trees and moved from branch to branch to pollinate blossomswhile grandma and grandpa were on the floor pollinating the blooms by using brusheswith long sticks and gave their grandchildren advices on which blossoms should bepollinated and on their safety.Why do they have to pollinate blossoms instead of letting them be pollinatednaturally? Many farmers told me that number of bees and bats for helping pollinationhad markedly decreased so they could not rely on natural pollution anymore. If theytried to do so, their trees would not as fruitful as they needed, and their fruits wouldnot contain full segments of flesh as what was required by the market. Uncle Su, whohas reputation of producing good durian, explained to me:Nowadays, we orchardists cannot rely upon the nature as what we did before. Withglobal warming due to industrial factories, the season changed, and there are noenough bees to help pollinate blossoms anymore because we use a lot of chemicalpesticides. If we want the trees fruitful and beautiful fruits, we have to help the trees.Uncle Su further told me that chani durian needs more help because it isdifficult in self-pollination. He cross-pollinated chani durian by using pollen grains ofmonthong durian. In doing so, he could ensure the fruitfulness and the perfectness ofthe fruits. His chani fruits would be in relatively round and more beautiful shape. Hischani fruit became a mixed breed of monthong and chani. When I asked him whychani became more fruitful with cross-pollinating than with self-pollinating. Hepaused and then explained:

Chingchai Methaphat 24I don’t know. But, many people said that chani likes to be promiscuous. Like a folkstory about chani (gibbons) that was cursedly transformed from Nang Mora, abeautiful wife, who helped a pirate stab and kill her husband (Tao Chantakorop) todeath and run after the handsome pirate. I think it could make sense because chani isreally difficult to have fruit by itself but it becomes fruitful if it has cross-pollinatedwith monthong.Sweeping blossom technique increases the quantity of fruit and ensures thatthere would be full segments of durian flesh. Most farmers devoted time and labor toenhance fructifying their trees by sweeping blossoms. During late November andDecember, I saw many light torches in durian orchards, showing that farmers weresweeping durian blossoms. I often stopped my bike and participated with them insweeping the blossoms. Cham and Di, husband and wife, told me that they sweptdurian blossoms during the night until after midnight to finish in time so that they didnot have time to join New Year party with friends. Sacrificing their celebrating timepaid off. I observed that their trees were not only fruitful, but their fruits were verybeautiful. Sang and his wife, Pa, a couple for the Northeast, who rented an orchard toproduce durian, told me that he swept blossoms for all monthong durian trees, anddissected more than 4,000 blossoms of chani durian. Although he produced chemicaldurian, his fruits were exceptionally good-shaped and beautiful. And he could sell hisfruits at the beginning of the harvest season.3.6 Selecting and Taking Care of the Standardized FruitsAfter the blooms have turned to little fruits, farmers have to pay muchattention not only to diseases and pests that might destroy the fruits and trees but alsoto water volume that they should feed the trees. In the stage of young fruit, they haveto prevent pests including fruit borer (worm) and thrips (phlia fai), which are broughtby insects. The pests will ruin the fruit skin and husk. All my informants told me thateveryday they walked through and inspected their trees and fruits. Many farmers havetheir houses inside, or in front of, their orchards, so most of the time they are in theorchards. Di told me, “As soon as I wake up I go into my orchard, sometime at 2:00am with a light torch; I open water gate to sprinkle them and observe my trees andfruits. I talk with them nicely, ask them to produce fruit well, so I will give them good

Chingchai Methaphat 25food.” She and her husband, Cham, believe that like human, trees also are livingthings. “A tree has a life as we do,” Cham said, “but trees cannot speak to us in wordsof what they want.” Cham continued, “Only way to know what they want is toobserve their leaves, fruits, and trunks. By observation, we know whether they haveenough food and water for living or they need drugs to prevent or treat diseases. Andwe have to treat them well, so they will give us in return well.”Uncle Su believed that if he treated the trees well, the trees would return himgood benefits. He elaborated, “We have to give them (trees) enough fertilizers, water,and drugs (pesticides); and then, they will give good returns.” He also observed histrees everyday, talked with them nicely, and asked them to produce good andbeautiful fruits so that they would be given good food in return. He often playedcountry music, phleng lukthung, for his trees. In the daytime I often heard countrymusic very loud from his orchard. He extended his radio into two big loudspeakers toentertain his trees. He told me that he got an idea from news about a guy whoentertained his chickens and got good benefits in return. He had trial on entertaininghis durians and found that his durian fruits were very plentiful, beautiful, and with fullsegments. He said, “Those who produced durian in this area could not compare theirfruits with mine. Most of my fruits are fit into boxes, long klông for export.” Hebelieved that entertaining trees with music made the trees relaxed and happy. I oftenfound him sleeping soundly in a hammock in a shelter in the orchard, so I think thatboth he and his trees are relaxed and happy while listening to the music.In addition to preventing young fruits from diseases and insects and treatingthe trees well or making them happy, farmers trim unqualified young fruits off thebranches. When the young fruits are between one and one and a half month from fullblossoms, farmers usually cut out excessive fruits from the branches. They considerthe proportion of fruit quantity to healthiness of each branch. If a tree has many youngfruits (over 300 fruits) or produces young leaves, the tree might not be able to producefood enough for their needs because both young fruits and young leaves need highcarbohydrate. By nature, if demand of carbohydrate is higher than the tree’s capacityto synthesize food, the tree will abscise its fruits. Some farmers told me that duriantree does not love its fruits (children) because if young leaves are budding while thetree has young fruits (luk or children), it will abandon its fruits to keep its leaves

Chingchai Methaphat 26(mother). 12 Therefore, they have to thin the flaw or unshaped young fruits out to keepthe good shape fruit. Usually, they trim young fruit around three times: first, around3-4 weeks after flowers bloom, second around 5-6 weeks, and third around 7-8 weeks.The first time, keep around 60-80 percent more than those that are expected toharvest. The reasons to spare the fruits more than those are needed are to enhance thecompetitiveness of food consumption and to let the fruit consume more food in orderto prevent leaf budding. The second and third fruit thinning, farmers will cut theretarded or twisted fruit or the fruit with red thorns. In short, the most beautiful andgood-shaped fruit will be survived but the unshaped and ugly fruit will be cut off.Farmers will keep mature leaves healthy as long as possible so that they canensure capacity of the trees to produce food for the fruits. Farmers may fertilize thetrees through the roots or the leaves or both routes. Many farmers give the trees foodthrough the leaves by mixing nutrients with pesticides and spray them at the sametime. Farmers often complained about red mites which attacked mature leaves, andworm (borers) and thrips which ruined young fruits. Many farmers applied chemicalsincluding monocrotophos, methomil, cypermethrin, metalacsil, and folithilaluminium(aliate) to prevent worms and diseases. Although some farmers told me that theysprayed only three times during young fruit period, but in practice, there were threegenerations of fruit which mature at different times, the farmers had to spraypesticides more often than the ideal expectation. Those who used strong chemicalssprayed around every ten days whereas those who used mild chemicals sprayed everyweek (seven days). However, most farmers did not spray pesticides when durianswere nearly matured. They told me that skin of durian at this point is too hard to bepenetrated by worms; so, no need to spray pesticides. Many farmers told me that theyalso were concerned about the safety of consumers, so they did not use pesticides atleast one month of the preharvest period. When I asked them the possibility ofresidual chemical in the fruit, they responded that chemicals that they used are activein only short time, and the chemicals cannot be absorbed into the fruit’s flesh becausedurian has very strong and thick skin. And they did not use chemicals in thepreharvest period. Instead, they argued that the residual chemical might result from12 It is noted that the term luk in Thai means “children” for human beings and “fruit” for plants.

Chingchai Methaphat 27that durian traders and exporting factories used some chemicals to both ripen the fruitand prevent fungi.4. Harvesting and Distributing FruitsI observed how farmers identified mature fruit and also how the fruit isselected and harvested. Durian cutters climbed to the high trees, held a sharp knife,checked maturity of durian, cut its stem, and held the big fruit with only three fingersbefore tossing down to receivers. I myself did not dare to climb up such trees, but Ilearned how to cut fruits that were reachable from the ground and how to receive thetossed durian by using a jute-fiber sack. 13 Durian receivers have to hold the fruitbefore it touches the ground in order to prevent the fruit from being bruised and orthorns torn off. If only one thorn of durian is torn out or broken, its price is affected. Ifound that durian receivers had experienced being hit and hurt by the tossed durian.For me, it was thrilling. In harvesting durian, not only did I learn new things andobserve how durian cutters and receivers skillfully handled their jobs, but also Ienjoyed eating fresh and ripe fruit. I found that the fruit ripened in the tree was muchmore palatable than those in the market.Throughout the year, I observed the smiles on farmers’ faces. In the harvestseason, farmers could be especially happy when they already sold out their fruits.Durian orchardists who could produce their fruit earlier than others would be happierbecause they could get much higher price than those whose fruit was harvested later.Many traders came and contacted the orchardists before durian matured. They madecontracts for the price according to different grades of the fruits and the expectedharvesting time. That is to say, the better price is for the beautiful and the earlierharvested. On the harvesting day, those traders returned and cut the durian bythemselves. The farmers guided durian cutters to which trees first produced theirfruits. Durian cutters also checked quality of fruit before cutting, and if they were notsure, they would cut flesh out to examine its color.In late March 2008, I witnessed harvesting durian in Sang’s orchard where heproduced chemical durian. While they were weighing durian, Pa, Sang’s wife noticed13 The jute-fiber sack helps its holder receives durian effectively in that thorns of durian can penetrate into thesack’s fibers which help hold the heavy fruit not to slip out onto the ground before the receiver gently places thefruit.

Chingchai Methaphat 28that the scale did not move even though they put a couple of big durians on it. Theyfound out that the scale did not sense to the weight once it weighed to some level. Thetraders tried to convince Sang and his wife to continue using their problematic scale,otherwise he had to find a new scale, but Sang decided to go and buy new scale forweighing his durian. The atmosphere of transaction then covered with suspicion. Sangtold me he did not want this group traders cut his durian but he krengchai, wasconsiderate to his uncle who had promised with them to cut his durian. Sang and hiswife told me that his durian should have second cut in the following week but thedurian cutters did not come and cut the fruit. Sang and his wife were worried becausethe price of durian was falling each day. When he asked his uncle about what hewould think if he allowed other traders to cut his fruit; his uncle said: “it is up toyou.” But after Sang sold the rest of his durian to another trader with a square deal,his uncle complained to his friends that Sang disrespected him by doing his ownbusiness as he pleased, which resulted in that the aforementioned traders blamed him.This incident worried both Sang and his wife terribly. They told me that they feltunhappy with the conflict incident that resulted from selling their own durian.Although he tried to contract his uncle by phone; instead, his aunt accused him that hedid thing behind her husband’s back. Sang and his wife did not understand theiruncle’s reaction. They also felt bad, confused and unsafe because they heard fromfriends that the aforementioned traders might threaten or harm them. Aware of beingstrangers in the community and living in an isolated cottage in an orchard, theybecame cautious and worried about their safety. They thought about moving back totheir hometown in the Northeast. They asked me what should they do but I really didnot understand the reaction of his uncle and could not give them advice. Then, hissenior friend, Uncle Kang, who often helped him in many respects advised him toapologize his uncle even though he did nothing wrong because Uncle Kang also feltthat he was in the middle of the cold war between them and felt uneasy about thesituation because Uncle Kang himself also was socially indebted to Sang’s uncle inthat he helped take him to hospital when he was sick. Finally, Sang, together with hiswife and little daughter, went to see and apologize to his uncle but they did not talkmuch about the conflict issue, except that his uncle complained that the tradersblamed him. Later, the situation seemed better.

Chingchai Methaphat 29Lek’s story also indicates social risk. Lek and his wife allowed his former bossto arrange durian traders to cut their durian. Lek and his wife are from anotherprovince and rent an orchard from an absentee landlord. Before renting the orchard,they worked for his former boss in an orchard in Chanthaburi province for two years.He told me that he gained knowledge and skills from his boss so that he wanted togive credit to him by letting his boss make contract with traders for him. The deal wasquite good. At the first cut, they would give him 24 baht a kilogram for the first gradedurian and nine baht for the second grade. But the following cut would depend onmarket price. In his case, Lek and traders signed contract in paper with 5,000 bath ofdeposit. The first cut went well. Then, although many of his durians matured, thetrader did not return. He and his wife kept waiting for the trader and were worriedbecause the price of durian went down day by day. He drank whisky almost everyevening, and he complained about the loss of opportunity to get the good price of hisdurian. He often told his friends and me that he gave the credit to his former boss asthe way in which he could pay back his bunkhun, gratitude to his boss. Then, hewould feel free to make decision on his own in the next cut and the following years.In the cases of Sang and Lek, it is clear that individuals are not a free-willagency but an agency whose decision is subjected to socio-economic and politicalstructure – especially to social relations in the system of gift-giving.Preventing risk of social relation by keeping the contract with the traders, Lekencountered other kinds of risk. While waiting for the contracted traders to come andcut his durian, he faced climatic risks to lose his fruit. During May, the beginning ofrainy season, the weather was not stable. The rain was heavy and the wind was quitestrong, so the wind caused tons of durian fell down. Lek told me that he lost morethan a ton of durian by the wind. Durian fruits, which were exposed to rain water,would prolong maturity or ripening. Worse, the rain could also cause matured durianwet core (sai sum) and its taste is not as good as usual.It is interestingly noted that the fruits are also distributed as gifts. Lekcomplained that so many friends and relatives came and visited him during theharvest season and he had to welcome with good reception and give them his fruit asgifts. He said:

Chingchai Methaphat 30Before harvest season, only we, two old spouses, worked hard – no helping handsfrom friends and relatives – but once we harvest fruits, so many friends and relativescome visit us; I have no idea where they are from. Some of whom I have not seen forthree years, but they visit me at the harvest season… Do you know how many fruit Ihave already given to visitors? Totally, I think around three tons!In the gift system, Lek was compelled to give his fruit as a gift to friends andrelatives although he was not happy to do it. The gift obligates individuals to give,receive and reciprocate (Mauss 2000 [1990]).I learned that usually the person who introduced traders and durian producersreceived compensation for around 0.5-1 baht per kilogram of durian from the traders.And they usually sold around two to four tons in each transaction. That is to say, anintroducer could make money more than 1,000 baht from an easy job. Some villagersand young students in the village earned quite good money from taking durian tradersto their relative orchardists. Some young men worked as durian cutters during theirspare time; they were paid as high as 500 baht a day; and, some, together with theirfriends, worked as petty traders during the harvest season.In 2007 and beginning of 2008, the price of gasoline had risen to more than adollar per liter. The high cost discouraged fruit traders from coming to buy fruits, andfarmers also hesitated to load their fruits to sell in distant provincial markets.However, Uncle Thip cut and loaded his durian to sell at talat Thai, Thai centralmarket in Bangkok, where he had his regular customer. Each trip, he took around twoand a half tons to the market. Since there were very long lines to get into the market,he took around two days in each trip to sell all his fruits. Before carrying fruit to themarket, he had to smear ethephon 14 (the chemical to ripen the fruit) on the stem of thefruit. According to Uncle Thip, all durian traders applied ripening chemicals to theirdurians. He told me that segmented flesh of durian was not ripe at the same time sothat traders had to smear ethephon or other kinds of ripening chemicals. When Iexpressed my surprise and wondered if it was harmful, he said, “It is not dangerous! Itis used to bom, ripen, the fruit. It only heats the fruit to ripen. All traders use somekinds of the chemicals.” He told me that some traders dipped their fruit into the14 Ethephon is organic phosphorus compound or ethylene generator or plant growth regulator. Its activeingredients can be found in a variety of herbicides. The chemical can be applied in different phases of plantdevelopment; it can also accelerate maturity or ripening of fruits or vegetables (http://extoxnet.orst.edu/pips/ethephon.htm last accessed December 10, 2008).

Chingchai Methaphat 31ripening solution. And, if they wanted their fruit flesh became yellowish andbeautiful, they mixed khamin, turmeric, into the chemicals.I had an opportunity to visit a durian exporting factory and observe theprocess of preparing the fruits and packing them into boxes. First, workers blew eachfruit to get rid of dust; then, they dipped the fruit into the chemical solution. At theend, the fruit was packed into boxes. In the dipping solution were two fungicides –foli-r-fos 400 and procymidone – and a ripening chemical – ethephon – and tension(T-7) as an adjuvant to increase the chemicals’ effectiveness. Turmeric was in thedipping solution to make durian beautifully yellow, and before packing, a workersmeared more ethephon at the fruit’s stem. The owner told me that the chemicals donot harm consumers because he used the minimum in the allowable range.4.1 Immature Durian versus Mature DurianWhen I asked orchardists about what kind of risks fruit orchardists encounterthe most, most of them firstly responded that the low price of fruits is their risk.Among many factors contributing to decrease the fruit price, selling immature durian(thurian on) is an influential condition to create the risk. How can young durian affectthe price of the fruit market? Many farmers told me that they believed that fruitexporters created the downturn of the market by exporting young durian in theshipments. The young durian, although they are beautiful and good-shaped, is lowquality of its flesh and taste or the fruit cannot be eaten at all. Then, its price will bereduced, and that affects negatively to the following batches of the fruit. I askedfarmers if such a situation would not also affect the fruit exporters. I did not see thereason why exporters would create such a disadvantageous situation; and I thoughtthat the exporters would also lose their benefit. Some fruit farmers told me that theexporters anticipated the loss of benefit only at the first time when they exportedyoung durian, but once the price went down, they could buy good durian at thecheaper price and got a greater benefit from exportation. Farmers said that exportershad signed contract with their counter partners at the guaranteed price in advance sothat they gained good benefit. But I also wondered that by knowing such effects, whyfruit farmers sold their young durian to traders. Many farmers complained thatfarmers hurt their own folks by selling immature durian. At the beginning of the

Chingchai Methaphat 32season, traders would offer very high price and some farmers could not resist suchlucrative benefit although the farmers knew the truth that their durian had not yet beenmature. To my knowledge, fruit farmers often complained about their folks who soldyoung durians, which destroyed the market, but they had not got together to solve thisissue.Most orchardists managed their own fruits to sell either to traders or to themarket but Phuyai Kaeo, leader of “the Improving Quality of Fruits Group” in BanNoen Durian, and his friends have tried to re-group orchardists to bring their fruitsdirectly to consumers in other regions including Bangkok and northeastern provinces.The group members guarantee their commodities that can be returned if any fruit isimmature or inedible. They were small group of orchardists – all are Phuyai Kaeo’sclose friends – participating in the group. A former member of the group, told me thatsome members took money of the group for their personal purposes and did notreturn. He did not at all get his share money back. Beam, a member of the group, toldme that at the beginning it went well. “We learned how to make biofertilzers and alsoshared money to buy chemicals for group members. Then, when selling, thedistribution of quota of fruit was not fair. They give only to their close friends,” Beamtold me.Guaranteeing quality of commodities sometimes received dishonesty in return.Cham told me that in general joining the group was good because the group could setthe fair price of their fruits, but he had experienced being cheated by a trader. Thetrader complained that thirty kilograms of his durian were not ripe and returned them.He then gave the trader another 30 kilos of his ripe durian, but later found out that thefruits that the trader returned to him were not his.The issue that orchardists sell young durian into both international anddomestic markets is widely complained among orchardists in village level andprovincial level, but there seems to be no effective solution. Both farmers and tradershave a shared blame. Farmers are accused of selfishness for selling their young durianin exchange with lucrative benefit without considering to negative effects to theirfolks while traders and exporters are accused of using market strategies to hurtfarmers for their own interests. From my observation, young durian was in the marketonly in the beginning of the harvest season, the time that the high demand but low

Chingchai Methaphat 33supply of the fruit, between late March and mid-April 2008. Later, there were overproducedof the ripe fruit and the price reduced, so I did not hear any complaintsabout young durian any more.4.2 Use of IncomesSince most fruit farmers are indebted to either the government Bank ofAgriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives or agrochemical retailers, when they selltheir fruit, they first pay back the debts to chemical shops and the bank. Afterharvesting their fruits and paying debts, farmers start investing for the next year bybuying fertilizers and pesticides for fruit production in the following season.Around late May and early June 2008, I observed huge stacks of fertilizers andboxes of pesticides that in front of fruit farmer’s houses. Uncle Thip planned to makechemical durian in the next season, so after harvesting his durian and paying his debtsto the chemical shop, he bought fertilizers, pesticides and hormones from the shop for30,000 baht. He had to buy in cash at the first time and then he would be given acredit for the following times. The same was true in case of Beam. Although he soldout his durian for a million baht, he paid his debt to a chemical shop for 300,000 bahtand he bought agrochemicals for the next production for 60,000 baht and kept thembeneath his house.Some farmers had money left to purchase new cars and home facilities. Beamtold me that he planned to buy an air-blast machine for spraying chemicals in thisorchard so that he would not employ anyone to spray chemicals. Using a sprayingmachine could also save him from being exposed directly to chemicals.Unfortunately, after selling his durian for a million baht, in late afternoon mid-April,he lost his house and property in a fire while nobody was at home. He lost more thantwo million baht worth properties. He told me that luckily he had just paid a hugedebt to agrochemical shop. But he also lost chemicals worth of 60,000 baht, which hejust bought them and kept all beneath his house. Instead of buying the sprayingmachine, he had to build a new house for his family.One day of late May, Dom and his wife drove a new pick-up truck with thered plate of registration to the health center. Without telling, those who were sitting atthe health center said to me that he must have been rich from selling durian. He, then,

Chingchai Methaphat 34told me that the new top model truck was sweat of him and his wife. Many friendsand people admired him and his wife for being good at producing durian. I observedthat his truck was fully loaded with fertilizers, pesticides and growth hormones. Hetold me that without the chemicals he could not have this newly branded car.The success in fruit production has been viewed as not only the result of sweatand guts of farmers who have devoted their resources and knowledge – both scienceand ethnoscience – but also the contribution from superstitious beings. Such acontribution could not easily be noticed unless one observes a family party afterselling fruits. In August 2006, Uncle Thip invited me to join an evening party at hishouse where families and friends enjoyed having pork and whisky. The food that weate was what Uncle Thip’s daughter offered to the land-spirit (choa thi) as a gift inreturn for helping her to produce durian at her required level. Uncle Thip explainedthat his daughter requested if she could produce durian as much as 200,000 baht, shepromised to give a pig head to the land spirit. In 2006, she could sell her durian formore than the requested level, so she gave two pig heads to the spirit. After offeringthe food to the spirit, she cooked the food and treated friends and families.There are two kinds of spirit house: one with four or six pillars and the otherwith one pillar. The spirit house with one post is called san phra phum, land-priesthouse, and the house with four or six posts is called san choa thi, land-spirit house.Mo Lom, a folk doctor, told me that land priest is superior to the land spirit. While praphum or land priests are good spirits, the land spirits are just ordinary spirits, whichare souls of those who died in the lands. And each land must have a land spirit. Butthe land spirits possibly harm or threaten people who disdain them. Orchardistsusually offer the spirit food for protecting the land and their crops. I asked manyorchardists about the land spirits; many of them believed the existence of the spirits,but some said that, although they were skeptical of such invisible things, they wouldrather follow what other people did. Many farmers told me that while working in theorchards, they asked in their minds to spirits that if the spirits could help them havecertain level of money, they would give particular food – usually a pig head (hua mu)or a whole pig (mu mop) – to the spirits in return. On 12 th April 2008, I observed Sangand Pa paid respect to the land spirit by offering a slaughtered pig (mu mop). At theritual, Sang and his wife and landlord representative put lit incenses on the pig and

Chingchai Methaphat 35offered many bottles of whisky to the spirit. After offering pig and whisky to spirit,they chopped the slaughtered pig into pieces and gave to friends and relatives. In theevening, they cooked pork and invited friends to have dinner and whisky.Knowledge of Fruit ProductionProducing durian is like buying a lottery (su huai). It is uncertain! Durianorchardists could become either rich (ruai) or left in rags (cheng). It is risky! But ifwe gain, it is worth investment!Uncle Su, 56 years old fruit farmerThurian (Thai term for durian) deserves its name that means “rian mai ruchop,” endlessly learning! It is never certain! Even those who have extensiveexperiential knowledge might not be sure.San, 45 years old fruit farmerRian mai ru chop or “endless learning discourse” signifies that fruit farmershave to continue learning, observing their trees, assessing and solving problems oftheir trees. The knowledge is not static but provisional and unstable; they could not becompletely confident in what they do but strategically practice and learn in the sametime. What sources of knowledge have they learned how to produce durian and otherfruits? All farmers valued their direct experience in fruit production.For non-native fruit producers, it takes some time to be capable of producingfruit. For instance, Lek and Pan, a couple from another province, worked hard andlearned every single step in fruit production, what kinds of insects and diseasesdestroyed the fruit and what chemicals should be used, from their former employerfor two year before they came to Ban Noen Durian to start producing fruits forthemselves. Lek said, “I and my wife did all tasks and produced durian for our bossuntil he got millions a year. So, we thought that we should make (money) for ourown.” While Lek and his wife had a learning experience before producing the fruitfor themselves, Sang and Pa began producing fruit with ignorance. Learning fromfriends that making durian was an attractive option, they came and helped Sang’sbrother in the orchard at the first year. Sang recalled how he and his brother produceddurian at the first year as a “trial and error.” They could not learn much from

Chingchai Methaphat 36neighbors because “they withhold their experiential knowledge (haung wicha),” saidSang. Eavesdropping was an option, but they could not be sure what they heard wastrue. They were also suspicious that their neighbors might fool them by givingmisinformation about fruit production to eliminate competitors. In the first year(2006), he and his brother invested around 30,000 baht in an irrigation system – notincluded chemicals – but gained only 60,000 baht from selling fruit. Then, his brothergave up and let San and his wife work in the orchard. He, later, knew Uncle Kang, asenior friend who he and his wife often helped work in Uncle Kang’s orchard. UncleKang and his son were very good at producing chemical durian and let him learn fromthem. In addition, he learned from Jam, a salesman in an agrochemical shop, and froma manual for producing durian, given by Jam. In the second year, Sang’s trees andfruit are beautiful and fruitful, and he was able to sell the fruit at the beginning ofharvest season. He gained more than 200,000 baht from durian.While most fruit farmers value their experiential knowledge, they oftenwithhold their knowledge of fruit production. Most of my key informants remindedme that they could not completely trust anyone or even their neighbors who would tellthem about fruit production because they might not tell the whole truth for beingafraid that the learners would become their competitors. When I asked him if he hadshared with anyone in the village, Uncle Mut said:No, I never did. If I tell them, they will not believe me, and they may think how Idare to tell them. Telling them might mean that I know things better. And if theyfollow my advice, but if things happen undesirably to their trees – for example, iftheir trees die – they would blame me. So for what reasons do I have to put myself insuch a risk?Other reasons Uncle Mut gave for not sharing were “To keep oneself humbleand do not make oneself more dominantly than others,” which is widely sharedamong most Thai people. Many farmers did not give advice to others because theywere not sure if knowledge would work in other orchards. They told me that differentorchards had different conditions, especially the soil conditions. Farmers had to knowthe type of the soil in their own orchards and understand the trees. Therefore, manyfarmers did not dare to give advice to friends about how to produce fruit in differentorchards. The experiential knowledge that was learned from a particular orchard

Chingchai Methaphat 37might not work in other type of land. Some would rather withhold their knowledgethan risk blame that might result from undesirable outcome of the advice. Givingadvice to their farmer friends would risk wrecking their relationship.However, some experienced fruit producers – such as Uncle Set – loved totransfer their knowledge to others. Uncle Set, a revered and charismatic folk healerand successful fruit producer, living in another village around seven kilos away fromBan Noen Durian, told me that he was happy to help give suggestions about how toproduce fruits. Many orchardists in Ban Noen Durian and other villages had, to someextent, consulted him for his advice about producing fruit. Uncle Set has 55 rai ofland, in which all his children work and share their resources.He acquired knowledge from his experience and from sharing with AjarnNung Din, top-one soil guru, who had served in a Royal Project for many years.Besides from learning from various agricultural experts, he learned by doing,experimenting by himself. He said:My orchard is my experimental laboratory room (hong thotlong). I observe all partsand processes of the trees; I know when they wake and when they sleep. Orchardistsmust water trees in the morning so in the afternoon the trees can sleep. I even sprayedwater forcefully to wash the soil out so that I saw its roots’ conditions.Born in a rather poor family and with only four years of education, Uncle Setworked as a rice farmer, but after planting some durian trees, he anticipated that theperennial fruit trees would alleviate his poverty. He bowed and respected his ownland before leaving to a plantation land to plant durian. With working hard and beingemployed by an affluent politician, he could not only save money to buy more landbut also buy a motorized pump for watering his trees. He produced the first durian in1972 and accumulated his experience for more than four decades. He often stressedthe term “phum panya,” local wisdom that he had accumulated. He explained:Phum panya means self, self-practice; phum panya are ways in which we havepracticed and experienced for extensive period. I have practiced for 43 years so that Iknow whether a tree is sick by looking at its leaves and its top because I have donesuch a long time.Uncle Set used both chemical and bioorganic substances in his orchard, but heused chemical pesticides only a few times – one or two sprays to protect leaves, one

Chingchai Methaphat 38spray for flower and another spray for protecting young fruit. His principle of fruitproduction is “keeping soil and tree alive.” That soil is a living thing means, “in thesoil there are variety of micro-organism (chulinsi) and other living things, especiallyearthworms which are very useful to the soil and trees.” He told me that he learnedfrom experts that earthworms produced some useful substances for the trees. Heregularly checked the density of earthworms in his orchard.Uncle Set received recognition as a role model for farmers in not only subdistrictlevel but also district, provincial and regional levels. He said that hesuccessfully helped himself and then wanted to help other people. He often acceptedinvitations to give speech to share his experience in several occasions. Manyagricultural experts and students also came to learn from him in his orchard.Many farmers did not rely on agricultural extension staff; instead, mostfarmers ignored the staff’s knowledge. Many farmers told me that the extension staffdid not have orchard so they did not really know how to produce fruits. “They knowonly theory,” Cham said. Some village leaders even said publicly that they did not seethe use of employing an agricultural extension staff at the Tambon AdministrativeOrganization (TAO). Some farmers shared with me their negative experience with theextension staff. For instance, Uncle Pan, who originally was from another area andworked in a bank, started his orchard with growing durian. His durian were verybeautiful and fruitful. But an agricultural extension staff gave him advice to fangkhem, implant chemicals into the trunks of the trees in order to prevent some diseases.After he followed the staff’s advice, the fruits turned yellow and dropped to theground. Not only did he lose all the beautiful fruits but also almost all his durian treesgradually died. He was very angry with the staff and went to scold him in his officefor no responsibility of his advice.Besides learning from their own experience, sharing with some friends andsome experts, many farmers learned a great deal from the media. There were sometelevision programs about agriculture in the early morning around 05:00 am, andfarmers told me that they often watched the program. Radio programs also playedsignificant roles; the radio stations often run advertisements of fertilizers andchemicals sponsored by agrochemical retailers and companies.

Chingchai Methaphat 39Whereas most fruit farmers did not credit knowledge from the agriculturalextension staff, they were accessible to salesmen and sales promotion staff fromchemical shops. Some fruit farmers told me that salesmen visited their orchards oncea month to assess their trees and fruits and gave an advice or warning about diseasesor insects in particular period, and suggested what drugs or fertilizers they should use.Farmers knew well that salesmen tried to sell agrochemicals to them, but they couldalso learn from the salesmen because “salesmen have visited many orchards so thatthey gain knowledge from different orchards and we can learn from them,” Di andCham said. Some times salesmen visited an orchard and left a note at the gate to tellthe owner about what diseases or insects they should be aware of and what chemicalsshould be used.Concluding CommentsIn this paper, we saw that the beauty was not only an aesthetic value of things andpeople but also the exchange value that influenced how farmers produced the qualityfruit according to market requirements. In the competitive market, the beautifulproducts were valued and given the good price. To be able to get good profit, thosewho produced fruit for the market aimed to produce the beautiful and standardizedfruit; therefore, the value of standard and beauty had been involved and hadinfluenced in every step of fruit production.Fruit producers encountered different kinds of risk that would destroy thequality of their fruit or cause them to lose market benefits. Therefore, they tried totake any measures to prevent or minimize the risks. Since the price of the fruit in thecompetitive market was not stable, farmers tried to minimize economic risks by tryingto produce as many quality (beautiful and standardized) fruit as possible, and bringtheir fruit into the market as soon as possible. In producing durian, the producers wereaware of risks in every step of fruit production.To keep the orchard clear and clean, many farmers used herbicides, and toprotect the leaves of the trees, they had to use pesticides. A family metaphor, theleaves as mothers were taken care of very well by farmers because the healthy leaveswould produce healthy children. Since pests attacked leaves, flowers, and fruit,farmers had to protect them by using pesticides. Farmers had to keep the standard and

Chingchai Methaphat 40beautiful flowers and fruit by thinning the ugly and unhealthy ones. They alsoprotected them from pests and diseases.Farmers who aimed for high prices used intensive chemicals to producebeautiful products. In doing so, they exposed themselves to chemicals, so their liveswere at risk while they were producing beautiful fruit. In the process of fruitproduction, farmers not only encountered health and economic risks but risk of socialrelation.References Cited:Agricultural Toxic Substances Division1999 Conference of Department of Agriculture on Good Agricultural Practice in theUse of Pesticides. Bangkok: Department of AgricultureMauss, Marcell2000 [1990] The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies. NewYor & London: W.W. NortonMethaphat, Chingchai2009 Silent Risk: Chemical Pesticide Use among Fruit Farmers in an Eastern ThaiCommunity. PhD Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University ofWashingtonOffice of Research and Development, Region 6 Chantaburi1994 Technologies for Fruit Production in Eastern Region. In: Department ofAgriculture (ed.). Bangkok: Public Relation Division, Department ofAgriculture