I I - part - usaid

ANNEX V
V. Technical FeasLbility Analysis Agricultural Technology
(See Supplemental Annexes for more detailed analysis
a. Background - Current Farming Practices
Although local variation is frequent, the general
farming strategy in Northeast Thailand follows these seasonal
activities: A great number of individual farms have both upland
and paddy fields, so prior to the onset of the rainy season much
of the upland areas are planted to cassava or kenaf. As soon
as rainfall permits, rice seedling nurseries are prepared and
seeded. When seedlings are available, water is sufficient, and
paddies have been prepared by plowing with buffalo, the rice
transplanting process begins on the lowest-lying lands available
that do not have a high probability of crop failure due to
flooding. As the rains continue to increase, transplanting moves
out of the flood plains and low terraces into the middle terraces
to the extent that the rainfall of that season allows. Much of
the land reported as fallow is being held in reserve for rice
should rainfall be sufficient, especially since in wet years
considerable areas of lower paddy are flooded out. After rice
is transplanted labor demands for rice production decrease, and
other farming activities are given primary emphasis, including
additional cassava or other garden or cash crops, livestock
which must graze only on land not planted to crops, fishing,
sericulture, etc. The second labor demand peak for rice production
comes during the harvest season, during which priority is
;,gain given to the primary subsistence crop. Especially during
both peak labor periods for rice, problems related to the
increasing scarcity of livestock grazing land and fuelwood are
becoming serious problems in many areas. After a paddy field
is harvested it is usually grazed by livestock, but in a few
areas some farmers are beginning to plant small areas of paddy
fields to a second crop which can produce a crop from residual
soil moisture, sometimes supplemented by a hand-dug shallow well,
Some farmers also plant low-lying flooded land to rice or cash
crops after the flood waters recede. Kenaf is usually harvested
and retting begun just before rice harvest, and continued after
rice harvest unless water becomes too scarce. During the dry
season, cropping activities other than cassava harvest are
limited by water availability, and primary emphasis shifts again
to other farming activities such as fishing, woodcutting,
construction, and handicrafts. Livestock also require tending
during this period, since the quantity and quality of available
feed and water decreases through the dry season, resulting in
weight loss ai.d poor nutrition status of draft animals which
must perform their hardest work at the end of the dry season.