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Technological Intervention to reduce biomass burning and improve

agricultural sustainability in Mae Cham, Chiang Mai
Poon Theingburanathum#, Pongtip Thiengburanathum#
# Chaing Mai University School of Public Policy, Chiang Mai University, 239 Huay Kewa Rd, Chiagn Mai 50200, Thailand
E-mail:poon@eng,cmu.ac.th, pongtip_t@cmu.ac.th

Abstract— Modern agricultural practices, improve logistics, coupled with reduced labor in the field has resulted in the increase use of
chemicals. Chemical fertilizer has been portrayed as efficient and effective, as the label prescribe the amount of nutrients on their
bags. At the same time, most modern agriculture manuals also follow the modern practice and suggest the application of chemical
fertilizer instead of organic fertilizer. The convenient of chemical fertilizer, where the farmers could buy from the shelf over the 6-12
months process to produce organic fertilizer has won over in most places in Thailand. The rapid aerobic process could assist the
farmers in multiple ways, it reduces the time and labor cost of producing organic fertilizer to 24.7 hours on average. The utilization
of leftover biomass for organic fertilizer has proved to reduce the biomass burning. The pilot programme in Mae Cham, Chiang Mai
Province has reduced 69 tones on animal feed corn husk that would have been burned causing additional air pollution during haze
phenomenon in 2017.

Keywords— aerobic composting, haze reduction, organic fertilizer.

(19.3%). The shift from subsistence cultivation to cash crop

I. INTRODUCTION has converted forest area to agricultural area. Based on
Thailand development path has been governed by the Geographical Information from the year 2002 to 2007,
National Economic and Social Development Plan (NESDB 4,347.86 square kilometers of forest land had been converted
Plan) since 1960. The focus of the first three NESDB plans into animal feed corn plantation2.
were to on laying foundation for financial system and
infrastructure development to prepare for agriculture and II. AGRICULTURAL REFORM IN MAE CHAM DISTRICT
industrial development in the 4th and 5th NESTDB plan1, this Chiang Mai Province has modernized its agricultural
is also known as the green revolution period. practice and commercialized their products. This has been
The agriculture development focus of on rural land reform reflected on the agricultural production as shown in Fig. 1.
between 1977-1981 has transformed agricultural practice from The trend for animal feed corn has been on an increasing trend
local self-sufficient oriented to commercial production to since 2007.
provide supply to expanding urban centers as well as exports.
The green revolution was coupled with technological
changes, introduction to agricultural machinery and chemical
utilization. This has an impact not only on the production
output, but also the social and environmental changes. The
nutrient uptake by the plants over decades and sold to the
market, while the plants residues are burnt. Hence, there is no
return biomass to the land, the nutrients in the form of
chemical fertilizer is added to the land to ensure that the plants
will have sufficient nutrients to grows. Such practice have Fig. 1 Agricultural Production in Mae Jam District from 2000-2015 (ton of
been degrading the soil quality in many places in Thailand. product)3
The ten provinces of Northern Thailand cover an area of
110,867.5 square kilometers. The two major sources of The production of animal feed corn in Mae Cham not only
income in this region are industry (19.6%) and agriculture result in production output but also the use of chemical to
ensure the production output. From the survey conducted in logistics was the answers to these farmers. The utilization of
2017 with 169 farmers4 in Mae Cham District. We have these chemicals then follow as inevitable cause and effect.
found that out of 169 farmers, 93% plant animal feed corn as To produce compost from agricultural waste via
their primary crops and 57% of the farmers use fire to burn the conventional method will take at least 2 months, with
biomass residue in the field. It was crucial that all the farmers additional moisture added every 10 days6. The agricultural
who planted corn also adopted the chemical based practice to waste as shown in Fig. 3 would be burn on-site, instead of use
ensure that their production meets the buyer requirement. as raw material for compost.
The animal feed corn farmers in Mae Cham will follow the
instruction for plantation and production prescribed by the
buyers, who also provided upfront payment for the investment
needed for seeds, chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticide.
The strong supply chain for animal feed corn has
transformed the agricultural practice in the area from self-
reliance and natural based process to chemical based process.

III. FARMERS CHALLENGES TO REDUCE CHEMICAL USE

The challenges faced by the farmers in the area include but
not limited to legal land rights, limited infrastructure for
logistics, rain fed agriculture practice and lack of labour to
produce on-site compost. These challenges all lead the
farmers to maximize their agricultural output and heavy use of
chemicals. Fig. 3 Animal feed corn piling up in the highland
The farmers are faced with challenge from buyers to ensure
that the products use the chemical required. This is one way The compost would need to be organized into pile not
in which the buyers could guarantee high quality production more than 1.5 m. in layers between animal manures and the
from the farmers. If the farmers did not follow the animal biomass as shown in Fig. 4.
feed corn production instruction, they will be at risk that their
products will not be sold.
The limited infrastructure accessibility in Mae Cham also
limit the market options for the farmers. The road access to
Mae Cham is very low, while the ground is mostly highland
zone. The land is legally covered with 82.08% of the forest,
while in reality 25.6% of the land has been converted into
agricultural land5, see Fig. 2 for the comparison between
expected land use and actual land use.

Fig. 4 Composting pile6

The process required a large land area and water supply

for the compost production. This can be a challenge in some
areas especially in the highland area that does not have any
water supply in the dry season after the harvest in January.

IV. TESTING GROUND AND SHOWCASE OF RAPID AEROBIC

COMPOSTING TECHNOLOGY
The convention and improved techniques to produce
compost still post a numbers of challenge and limitations in
the highland area. Hence, the rapid aerobic composting
technology was introduced to Mae Suk Sub-District, Mae
Fig. 2 Expected and land and actual land use in Mae Cham District5 Cham District. The process involved the on-site
(green = forest land, yellow = land with entitlement, and red = illegal land use) demonstration of VCO, a commercial aerobic composting
machine that operates in batches see Fig.5.
The farmers in the red zones are challenge by the authority VCO has built in sensors and controls unit to ensure the
to for legal land rights. The incentive of these farmers are to optimum or aerobic reaction inside its green container. The
maximize the output from this land in the shortest time biomass once loaded into the container will be mixed in the
possible. Therefore, animal feed corn which only has a 4 inside the container. The control units will monitor that the
months cycle, rain fed with minimum requirement for biomass maintain at least 70 degree Celsius for at least 12
hours. This will reduce the chance of weed gemination to
zero. Hence, any unwanted plant such as weed could be use
as raw material as well. The mixing process and homogenous
compost output will ensure that seed, root or stem of these
plants were well decomposed.
Fig. 5 VCO and its process on site in Mae Cham District, Chiang Mai
Province.
The primary biomass for VCO input were corn husk,
corncob (69 tons), cow manure (6.6ton), chicken manure *0.3
ton), and water (3.3 m3). The pilot plant was operated from 5
May - 4 June 2017, 23 batches of compost was produced.
Each batch produced on average 3.5 tons of compost with the
average time of 24.7 hours. In total 63.5 instead from 79.4
tons of raw material.
The pilot site engaged 143 local farmers to bring in raw
materials, while the Haze Free Thailand support VCO
technology in the local area. The raw materials were
exchanged with the compost under a program called “waste
for compost”. The local farmers expressed high satisfaction
for the rapid process and minimum labor requirement to
produce compost from local agricultural waste.
The quality of the fertilizer is comparable with the organic
fertilizer standard prescribed by the Department of
Agriculture as shown in Table 1. In addition, the reduced
germination rate of weed also provided additional value on the
product, as it ensures that farmers that by using organic
fertilizer from VCO they would not be at risk of weed seed
from organic compost that did homogenously went through
the composting process.
Table 1 Comparison of Department of Agriculture Organic fertilizer standard
and fertilizer produced by VCO in Mae Cham.
Nutrients DOA Organic Organic Fertilizer
fertilizer standard 1 from Mae Cham2
Organic >20% 67.16%
matters
pH Level 5.5-8.5 5.96%
Nitrogen > 1% 1.56%
Phosphorus >0.5% 0.63%
Potassium >0.5% 1.26%
Source: 1) Department of Agriculture Organic fertilizer standard
2) Laboratory test result for organic compost from Mae ChamFaculty ,
of Agriculture, Chiagn Mai University
The farmers engaged in the program could take the
compost to apply in their field instead of purchasing chemical
fertilizer. The biomass was return to the soil in the local area,
improving the local environment and reduce the use of
chemical fertilizer. This is a prove that appropriate
technological intervention could assist in the reduction of
agricultural chemical use, as well as reduce the burning of
biomass.
The rapid aerobic process was able to overcome all the
three key obstacles for on-site composting; time require, labor,
and land. The rental and operation fee for VCO was 200,000
THB/month (approximately $6,250). Although, the
technology was able to overcome all the challenges faced by
the farmers in switching from chemical fertilizer to organic
fertilizer and reduce its chemical use, the investment cost of
the technology is too higher for 1 farmer to invest.
There are few options that can be consider for long term
operation of VCO in the field. The first option is that VCO,
could be co-invest by the community. The community could
set up a co-operatives to manage the facility to operate and
maintain VCO facility. The second option is clouding funding
the facility with external investment, where the investor could
charge an appropriate fee for the use of the facility. The third
option is for the local government or agricultural agencies to
invest in VCO, operates and maintain for the use by the
communities.
The risks of each options will be put on different people.
The first option will put the farmers at highest risk. While the
third option will let the farmers with the lowest risk. The
feasibility study of different options are to be further explored.
V. CONCLUSIONS
The use of organic fertilizer could reduce the chemical use
in the field. However, there is one barrier that the farmers
could not overcome is the cost of technology. While the
technology could assist the farmers in overcoming the
challenges faces by the farmers to produce the organic
fertilizer onsite.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We would like to thank National Research Council of
Thailand and Haze Free Thailand Project for permits to use
and their data for their research purpose.
REFERENCES
[1] http://www.nesdb.go.th/nesdb_en/more_news.php?cid=230&filename=
index
[2] Land Development Department http://www.ldd.go.th/
[3] Office of Agricultural Economics http://www.oae.go.th
[4] Mae Cham animal feed corn farmers survey conducted by Haze Free
Thailand Project Phase 1 2017-2018.
[5] Tossaphon Phuenudom in https://thaipublica.org/2016/04/smog-cp/
[6] Teerapong Sawangpanyakul, 2013, Mass Production of Organic
Fertilizer, Mae Jo University