Some people worry about where to get their food. Others worry about how to produce more food so there is a little extra to sell. And there are those who worry both about the food to eat and the security of the land on which they grow their food. The last is the case of the community living on the border of Thailand and Myanmar in Sangklaburi District, Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand.
Mr. Seri Thongmak, director of the Pattanarak Foundation, a Thai non-profit organization working with the community since 2001, provides a very striking and apt statement to describe the community’s plight as far as food security is concerned: “It is hard to talk about food security to those without security.”
His words echo a wisdom borne from a deep understanding of this special group of people’s experiences and history. For this community of displaced people, the lack of security of access to land is as important – perhaps even more – as the problem of what food to eat and how to get them.
The long road to security
Mr. Thongmak describes the work of Pattanarak with the community in Sangklaburi as challenging – and for understandable reasons. The community may be loosely described as comprised of displaced Burmese who fled the conflict in the country, but they are, in fact, a blend of various ethnic populations with origins from Myanmar, Lao PDR and even Thailand.
Many – in fact, almost all - wear colored ID cards, a form of identification that affords them legal status but not full Thai citizenship, and therefore they have no access to property especially land of their own that they can use for growing crops. “They have no land, and therefore no right to make their own decisions. It’s difficult for them to imagine how they can benefit from the land when it’s not something they own,” Mr. Thongmak adds.
The community’s long history of displacement and their movement from one place to another has also influenced the way they view agriculture. “They are highly mobile people and the concept of agriculture and producing food is foreign to them. They used to collect food from the jungle, the forests, and so it’s not easy for them to understand the concept of planting on a plot of land.”
These circumstances underscore the need for an integrated approach that will address not just the food security of the residents but also their capacity for decision-making in the face of their limited access to resources. Pattanarak uses a three-pronged theme that focuses on the interrelated connection between food security, livelihood and savings. According to Mr. Thongmak, food security – agriculture in particular – is used to introduce other important social issues like health, savings and livelihood.
Growing food, providing security
The agriculture projects of Pattanarak in the community are simple and straightforward. The organization has three very simple criteria as far as the programs go. They must be easy to teach, cheap and offers the least risk.
Since their work in the community in 2001, Pattanarak has introduced a number of agricultural activities: backyard gardening, complete with small demonstration plots that showcase the benefits of vegetable growing; and trainings on livestock raising. The idea is for the residents to see the gains and benefits of these food production activities and decide which one they would like to do in their own household.
The projects are small-scale and more geared towards building sufficiency for household consumption and less for commercial use. The logic behind this ties neatly well with Pattanarak’s other goal of empowering and capacitating the households: produce enough for the family, reduce dependence on mobile markets, lower expenditure on food, and use the money to increase household savings.
The approach has undoubtedly worked. The community now has over 20 savings groups with about 6,000,000 baht (as total saving) each as revolving fund. The money grew from the members’ monthly contributions, a result of their decreased expenditure on food as they started growing and producing vegetables and livestock right in their backyards.
“It took us two years to set up the first savings group. When they were organized, the first group encouraged other members of the community and we were able to create the second savings group. Now, we have 22.” Even more, the savings groups are community-owned and managed by the members; the fund is used to finance various household needs and activities, a simple form of giving the residents some semblance of security in their lives.
Building capacities, shaping minds
The immense jump from 1 to 22 savings groups is in itself already a major accomplishment for the community that used to have nothing. But this tangible feat in numbers also speaks of the other positive transformations in the community and among the residents.
Mr. Thongmak narrates, “The attitude of the people towards food production has changed. The simple exercise of deciding whether to plant vegetables or raise pigs gives them a sense of independence. In the past, the households buy feeds from other people. But when they put up the community store in 2011, community members now produce their own feed, sell them at the store, and others can buy them for a cheaper price. ”
“In the past, many of the households that raise domestic pigs found it difficult to negotiate the price of the pork in the markets because the meat is fatty,” Mr. Thongnmak further adds. “So we introduced them to a new variety of pig. We bought a high quality male pig and residents would bring the sow to the center for breeding.” Indeed, from the residents’ own willingness to join the savings group to their decision to put up the community store, they have gone a long way from their position of uncertainty in the past.
Deciding what agricultural project to embark on and participating in the decision-making of the savings group have given the residents a venue to express their thoughts freely, another of the many positive changes that Mr. Thongmak has observed. “As non-Thai they used to be hesitant to express their ideas. But now they feel that they can talk freely during the discussions about the savings group or the community store because these are projects that are not regulated by citizenship. It is not a resource that is only for Thais. It’s for the community, for them.”
Moreover, this building of capacities, the ability to express ideas and participate without reservations in decision-making has strong impacts particularly on the women since the savings group and community store are mostly comprised of women.
Crafting a deeper definition of food security
With the community’s long history of mobility, Mr. Thongmak explains, it is difficult to make the residents understand the concepts of long-term and sustainable. Pattanarak’s role, therefore, has been more of a catalyst, initiating discussions on long-term visioning, never insisting on a technology or an approach, and simply allowing the community to make its own decisions and carve its own path towards sustainability. In many ways, the community’s transformation from a group of uncertain, voiceless individuals to a group of empowered residents speaks of the remarkable changes that have transcended their food security needs.
“Achieving food security for the people we work with takes time.” Mr. Thongmak states. “You need to consider their rights, the kind of leadership in the community, their access to opportunities. And it involves changing their way of thinking and practice.”
Food security in this aspect does not simply begin and end with giving residents seeds to plant or providing inputs to improve self-sufficiency in food production. Food security is not treated as a separate, singular goal, but rather as a means to a broader, more important end. And for this group of people, the end is the idea of a holistic security – from the food they eat to the means to provide for any needs of the family.
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