Training Agriculture Graduate Students in Farming System Research and Development for Better Understanding and Improved Sustainable Agriculture

Abstract

Agriculture is the activity which is the most essential to human survival and well being. With the increase of world's population as well as in Asia and the Pacific , agriculture is not fulfilling all its vital function of feeding people. With accerelating of demand due to population growth, technological change lack of alternative opportunities in rural areas ,and accerelating agricultural output cause degradation and deterioration of environment including deforestation, land degradation, misuse of pesticides, chemicals and the loss of genetic resources. It is, therefore, sustainability in agriculture has to be considered. Sustainable agriculture involve the management and conservation of the resource base and the orientation of technological and institutional changes in such a manner as to insure the attainment and continue satisfaction of human needs for present and future generation. As the importance of small farmers who are facing constraints to their production, technologies and how they can utilize their land in a sustainable way, graduate students in Agriculture Production Program at Kasetsart University in Thailand are taught by their instructors to realize the limited land holding and capital of small holders and their raising population. They are also taught that many technologies generated by researchers has not been accepted to farmer simply because farmers feel that they are not practical. The technique of Farming System Research and Development has been introduced to graduate students who will be potentially developing technologies with the purpose of bringing an understanding of farmer's situations. Hopefully, when technologies which are being developed by those graduate students can be further adopted and utilized by farmers to increase their production. When graduate students conducted their theses or dissertations as the partial fulfillment to their degree, they were asked to conduct experiments related to improve agricultural technology suitable for small holders in the sustainable system as well.