Story: Thanchanok Pongputhinan /Agriculture and Food Cluster; Photos: Phongsak Takaeng
Nowadays, agriculture faces considerable challenges from unpredictable climate change and the limited availability of natural resources, particularly soil, which is crucial for humanity, serving as a crucial source for food production, water storage, and various ecosystem services. Rice farming heavily relies on the suitability of paddy fields. One of the important factors that significantly impact both the quantity and quality of rice yields is the uneven rice fields. This issue can lead to various problems such as inefficient water management, resulting in inconsistent rice growth and ineffective pest control in the fields. Agricultural technology and innovation thus serve as essential tools enabling farmers to adapt to these changes effectively, mitigating risks and maximising benefits of natural resource utilisation.
The Building a Climate Resilient Potato Supply Chain Through a Whole-Farm Approach (RePSC) is aware of the importance of land management regarded as the first step in ensuring high-quality yields. A field training session on “GPS Land Levelling for Crop Rotation” was recently conducted with an aim to integrate technology and innovation to support agricultural practices in the northern province of Chiang Rai, where the project has been implemented. The activity involved 60 representatives who are smallholder farmers, government and private sectors. Of the total, 20 are farmers from Chiang Rai and Ubon Ratchathani provinces. The rest are officials from the Rice Department, Land Development Department, Office of Agricultural Extension and Development Region 6 (Chiang Mai), Chiang Rai Provincial Agricultural Extension Office, and Wiang Pa Pao District Agricultural Extension Office, representatives from private sector companies, including PepsiCo, and Urumatt.
GPS land levelling technology is an efficient tool that helps farmers achieve more consistent and even field surfaces. The GPS technology maps out the elevation of the land surface with accuracy, allowing farmers to precisely identify high and low points of the land. The technology also enables automated measurement of soil depth in the field to calculate the average soil level, reducing time and labour costs in land levelling activities.
GPS land levelling is applicable in various terrains including slope and steep areas. However, complex geographical conditions or steep slopes can occasionally restrict its efficiency. Nevertheless, GPS land levelling offers more flexibility compared to Laser Land Levelling, which requires specialised expertise to setup and operate the equipment, posing challenges for farmers unfamiliar with the technology. Moreover, high levels of dust in the field can interfere with laser signal transmission between emitter and receiver, potentially impacting operational accuracy.
Beyond rice fields, land levelers can be employed for various crops, aiding in water management across the entire land plot, preventing waterlogging in specific areas. This is particularly beneficial for potatoes, which require water but not in waterlogging condition, to grow and produce high yields. Traditional land levelling method which relied on visual assessment can result in significant terrain variations across the field leading to prolonged water pumping durations. Adopting this GPS technology can reduce the time required for land leveling, promote consistent crop growth, decrease the prevalence of plant pests and diseases, and improve overall ecosystem management within the field. The key advantages of land levelers in enhancing production efficiency can be summarised as follows.
- Ensuring even soil levels with high precision
- Farmers can manage water in their rice field more easily, allowing efficient water inflow and outflow. This ensures timely and sufficient nutrient delivery to crops.
- Minimising weed growth.
- Decreasing production costs without impacting the environment.
The recent training and field day sparked interest among farmers and local organisations in promoting GPS land levelling technology in Chiang Rai province. This initiative also integrates the concept of sustainable agricultural landscape management to address climate change impacts. ■
