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From 1980 to 1986, the Integrated Rainfed Farming Research and Development
project was funded and supported by the United Nation Development
Programme (UNDP)/Food and Agriculture Ogranization (FAO) in cooperation
with the Royal Thai Government. The research project, which was initially
conceived by the Department of Agriculture, was later expanded as a joint
venture between research and extension. The Farming Systems Research
Institute (FSRI) of the Department of Agriculture \vas the main agency that
conducted and coordinated this project. The Department of Agricultural
Extension, the Department of Li\lestock, and the Office of Agricultural
Economics joined the project as cooperating agencies.
The goal of the project was to improve the productivity and income of
farmers in selected rainfed areas of major agroecological zones. The project was
to develop farming systems technologies, including alternative cropping sjTstems
and crop-livestock integration; introduce these technologies in different
agroecological zones ot selected rainfed areas; test these technologies in the
field; and train staff of the FSRI in interdisciplinary farming systems research
(FSR), development, and extension. The project coirered nine pro\.inces: five in
the north (Phavao, Chiang R:ii, Lampang, Phrae, and Sukothai), tlio in the
northeast (~ahasarakam arid Surin), and t\iro in the south (Phattalung and
Nakhon Sri Thaminar:it).
Because the project \vas farmer-oriented, the strategy for implementation
underwent several changes, i.e., from purely cropping systems, to crop-livestock
integration, to a whole-farm approach. The strategy of the project included:
defining the target areas according to agroecological and crop-production zones;
analyzing the existing farming practices and socioeconomic profiles of the
representative farmers in the rainfed areas; packaging and testing the developed
technologies and evaluating their technical feasibility and socioeconomic
viability; and e.utending pro\.sn viable technologies to more farmers.
Figure 1 shows the co~~ceptual frameivork of the project, which includes
the stages of FSR, the agencies in~lolved, and the approsin~ate time and
conditions required for creation, de\felopment, and transfer of the technology.
Mature technology is agroecologically feasible, economically viable. socially
acceptable, and ready for extension. The role of the FSR researchers decreases
over time; whereas, the role of extension officers and farmers increases as the
stages of multilocation testing, pilot production, and production programs are
reached. The farming and cropping technologies tested in the target farms were
developed in research stations riot only in Thailand but also in other countries
and international research csnters.
The 15 applied research packages or technologies were chosen to fit the
agroclimatic, socioeconomic, and indigenous farming practices in the project
sites. Five technologies were introduced in the different regions.