Soil Clinics: Farmers Teaching Smart-Farming to Farmers

In Thailand, the site-specific nutrient management technology, known as “Tailor-made Fertilizer Technology (TFT)”, for rice, maize and sugarcane in the Northeastern region was developed between 1997-2007, using the concepts of precision agriculture together with an approach of building capacity of small farmers. TFT, also called Smart-farming, comprises four components, namely 1) soil series identification, 2) N-P-K testing by soil test kit, 3) fertilizer recommendations using decision-aids and a simplified version of a complex model and 4) farmer empowerment. The benefit of TFT at the rice field of the Huay Kamin chairman farmer group was one example, the technology has been disseminated to the 80 members with a total planting area of about 320 ha. The results revealed chemical fertilizer reduction of 69%, and rice yield increased some 10% - 20% with the improved fertilizer application method. The farmers were encouraged to establish “Soil Clinics” in their communities. In a Soil Clinic, designated and trained farmer leaders analyze soil samples for member farmers and provide TFT recommendations while providing access to fertilizer materials available for sale at competitive prices. At present, there are about 70 soil clinics in 20 provinces with the support of many government and private sectors.


Introduction
The current population of Thailand is 69 million with some 5.7 million farms How to cite this paper: Wongmaneeroj, A., Pitakdantham, R., Thawornpruek, S., Verapattananirund, P., Yost, R.S. and Attanandana, T. (2019) Soil Clinics: Farmers Teaching Smart-Farming to Farmers. Agricultural Sciences, 10, 1194-1205. with an average farm size of 3.15 ha. Agriculture is one of the major sources of the economy, wherein more than 60% of the total population is involved in agriculture.
Chemical fertilizers play a vital role in raising agricultural productivity. Their significance is even greater in view of the steadily declining amount of arable land suitable for agriculture, deteriorating soil quality, and strong competition in the global market for agricultural goods. The consumption of chemical fertilizers in Thailand increased from 2.3 million tons in 2000 to 5.0 million tons in 2015, which cost about USD 1835 million. Approximately 42% of the fertilizer was used for 10.4 million ha of wet and dry season rice, of which 27% of the total rice land was used for irrigated rice in the dry season [1].
Due to the oil shock in 2008, the price of fertilizers greatly increased. As a consequence, the Thai Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives issued a policy to reduce the use of chemical fertilizers. The management of crop nutrients and fertilizers became very important, especially for economic reasons. The NPK fertilizer recommendations for most crops obtained from field experiments could not be transferred to other locations where the climate, soil type, crop variety, and management were different. The lack of self-awareness of farmers, combined with limited access to soil-testing laboratories and the lengthy delays of receiving recommendation resulted in blanket fertilizer recommendations-one size fits all-without soil testing for farmers' practices. The TFT technology directly counteracts that trend [2].
To ensure reduced production costs and increased crop yields in small farms, an effective and sustainable process for disseminating the Site-specific Nutrient Management technology, known in Thailand as the Tailor-made Fertilizer technology (TFT or Smart-Farming), through Soil Clinic was proposed. This paper reports on the nation-wide benefits from TFT in rice production, establishing Soil Clinics, and reports on the effective dissemination of TFT through Soil Clinics.

Benefits from TFT in Rice Production
The TFT for maize, rice and sugarcane in the Northeastern region was developed at Kasetsart University, Thailand, between 1997-2007, by adapting the concepts of precision agriculture together with building social and individual capacity of small farmers [2] [3]. TFT is the first adaptation of precision agriculture research work in Thailand and represents a model of adaptation of Precision Agriculture for small farms of the tropics.
TFT comprises four components, namely 1) soil series identification, 2) NPK testing by soil test kits, 3) precise fertilizer recommendation using decision-aids and complex models and 4) farmer empowerment [3].
We have introduced the technology to maize farmers for 18 years and to rice and sugarcane farmers for 13 years. The farmers who followed the technology have reduced their production costs and earned more profit compared to those

Establishment of Soil Clinics
The technique of capacity building was employed to encourage farmers to become aware of TFT and learn how to use it. The technique results in continuous self-improvement, which is essential for farmers and their institutions in achieving a balance in economic, social, and environmental development goals.
The main components of capacity building include farmer-centered development, participation of farmers, and a participatory learning forum or interactive learning [2].
Farmer-centered development means not only improvement in farmer's knowledge and capacity but also in their morale. TFT farmers assume a major role in decision making and managing their affairs while the GOs, NGOs and enhances building capacity of farmers to control their lives and businesses.
One of the most powerful techniques of improving farmer knowledge is demonstrating and convincing the farmers that they have knowledge that is useful and, if they use it correctly, they can change some of the critical factors of production. Consequently, not only the knowledge of TFT was given, but also many problems and challenges in rice production, especially issues related to seeds, insects, diseases, soil improvement, and strategic planning, were discussed and solutions found by the farmers.

Smart Problem Identification Technique in Crop Production
Participation of farmers. Farmers are encouraged and stimulated to develop self-reliance, in this way the Smart technique is illustrated and recommended for farmers to learn to identify problems systematically in crop production. The technique recommends that farmers should focus not more than three major problems in a single cropping season. In a participatory learning forum, farmers learn to modify and adapt the package of knowledge themselves with our supervision. The integrated knowledge for crop production results in a slightly modified and adopted TFT.
Three steps of the Smart problem identification technique in crop production are taught, preferably by example and by doing rather than by only giving lectures on the concepts. The technique can be used subsequently for any problem solving. The steps include the following: a) Assembling farmer leaders. Ten to fifteen farmer leaders of the farmer group are gathered in one place at the same time.
b) Setting the target and identifying major problems. The most common target issue is reducing the cost of crop production. The target should be clear, possible, and challenging. For example, a target might be: Reducing the cost of rice production by 15% in the next cropping season. The farmer leaders set the target individually for their next cropping season and no more than seven problems are identified at a time. Then, based on self-reliance, they select not more than three major problems with possible solutions and set priority of those problems. The target, problems and major problems are, consequently, noted in the table of eight slots on paper as shown in Table 2.
c) Brainstorming to summarize the target and major problems with some simple, practical solutions. This is an essential action step in technology transfer in the farmer group whereby theory, ideas, and local wisdom of the farmer leaders are integrated and put into practice.

Guideline for the Establishment of Soil Clinics
To improve access and adoption of TFT, we encouraged farmers to establish Soil   can be considered empowering because it includes the following topics: -Basic knowledge of soils, plant nutrients, fertilizers, and fertilizer use.
-Concept of and benefits from TFT.
-Sample collection for soil analysis.
-Soil analysis. The soil test kit is a simplification of the standard laboratory soil analysis. With training, the soil test kits enable the farmer leaders to measure soil pH, nitrate and ammonium, phosphorus, and potassium in about 30 minutes ( Figure 1).
-Soil series identification. Farmers don't need to understand the soil series classification in detail, but they need to know the name of soil series in their farmland. In 2002 a practical handbook was developed for identifying soil series that enabled extension officers and farmer leaders to identify the soil series by themselves. Subsequently, the developed procedure was published [4].
It is sometimes more convenient to use existing soil series maps at sub-district level as a simple visual tool ( Figure 2). -In 2019, a TFT app was developed for soil series searching and fertilizer recommendation. Farmers use the app, find soil series of their fields, and input the soil test results, then fertilizer recommendation will be reported. When farmers add the cost of fertilizer, other costs of production, and the price of the commodities, the production benefit is estimated and shown to the user. -Sharing experiences using TFT in rice production by farmer leaders. This activity is essential to convince farmers on the benefits of using TFT in reducing fertilizer use and increasing yield ( Figure 5).     waiting for the results of soil analysis, they can attend a learning forum described above. Then, after lunch, the results of soil analysis with the fertilizer recommendation are presented and discussed with the farmers (Figure 6).

As of May 2019, farmer leaders have established a total of 70 Soil Clinics in 20
provinces with technical support from our working group and with financial support from the government and private sectors.

Dissemination of TFT through Soil Clinics
In 2007, Department of Agricultural Extension (DOAE) officially transferred TFT to farmers in the irrigated areas for rice production in Angthong, Chainat, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya, and Nakhon Prathom provinces in the Central Plain.
In recent years, TFT has thus been effectively disseminated through Soil Clinics Agricultural Sciences

Conclusions
Thai farmers previously used the traditional one-size-fits-all method of blanket fertilizer application recommendations. The TFT-Smart-Farming for small-holder farmers has been developed and adapted from the concepts of precision agriculture since 1997, and can be considered as the first precision agriculture research work in Thailand. The conceptual approach of both simplifying the complex technology and empowering the farmers to learn the technology and to become self-reliant has been a distinctive, creative part of the TFT.
The simplified technology includes the process of soil analysis using soil test kits, employing soil series maps at the sub-district level, and developing a smartphone app for Tailor provinces of Thailand with technical support from our working groups and with financial support from the government and private sectors. In addition, DOAE has been supporting 882 Soil Clinics in every district throughout the country since 2015. We expect that the number of Soil Clinics will increase throughout the nation-wide network, so that chemical fertilizer use in Thailand will be reformed.