Prof. Dr. E. Schlecht, Dr. C. Hülsebusch
Thailand, Febuary 28th – March 15th 2013
Transformation Processes in the Agri-Food Sector – the Case of Thailand
The 16 day excursion to Thailand, a tropical country, provided participants with interdisciplinary insights into the bio-physical and socio-economic components of agro-silvo-pastoral systems in the global context.
From the Malaysian Peninsula in the South to the foothills of the Himalayan mountains in the North and from the Khorat Plateau in the East to the border with Myanmar in the West, Thailand hosts a variety of different ecological zones and agricultural and forest landscapes.
The country’s agricultural sector is still dominated by smallholder farmers, but this rapidly transforming towards being market- and export orientated.
The forestry sector has become more responsive to environmental concerns and since the logging ban in 1989, Thai forest institutions have developed a policy framework linking forests, communities, conservation and economic development. The 2013 excursion to Thailand focused on such transformation processes.
Upon request of the organizers, the colleagues at Thaksin University in the South of Thailand, particularly Dr. Aporn Songsang, have developed a two week excursion programme including visits to a variety of producers, processors and projects, thus demonstrating the diversity from large to small scale, from intensive to extensive, and from private cooporative to public collective.