Youth agriculture group wins royal award

With the last trace of daylight vanishing behind the horizon, darkness is about to descend over Baan Sang Ko school. Situated two hours away from downtown Udon Thani, located at northeastern tip of Thailand, the school remains bustling with students despite the late hour.

Wearing broad smiles on their faces, children talk and laugh as they disperse to different spots on the spacious campus.

Some children huddle over the vegetable patches, while others gather behind the school to tend to the mushroom nursery, chicken coops and fish pond.

Already they are looking forward to the bountiful harvests, a part of which will be allocated to the school kitchen and transformed into nutritious lunches for their school mates.

The surplus they can take home, or sell and divide the earnings among their respective group members.

Tirelessly the students take turns caring for this empire of animals and plants as part of the school’s Youth Agriculture Programme.

After all, its members just won the prestigious Best Youth Agriculture Group Award from the Thai monarch, His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej in May 2012. Similarly, the school’s director, Bantom Kaewarsa, was awarded the Best Consultant to the Youth Agriculture Group.

In Thailand, royal awards warrant national recognition and are among the most coveted by Thai people.

World Vision Foundation of Thailand also takes pride in Baan Sang Ko School’s success, given that the youth agriculture project grew from its lunch programme.

A few years ago, the foundation gave the school the initial funding for the lunch programme as well as fish stock for breeding. Since then the school staff members have ceaselessly sought external funding, eventually succeeding at expanding World Vision Foundation of Thailand’s project into an award-winning, highly integrated Youth Agriculture Programme.

To date Baan Sang Ko School is home to seven types of agricultural activities, each of which hosts an individual learning centre. The Youth Agricultural Programme members are appointed in small groups to oversee each learning centre, where they specialise in raising fish, chicken and pigs plus growing mushrooms and vegetables. Other groups produce organic fertiliser and process their yields into a variety of products including biogas.

A group that stands out is a crowd of seven boys specialising in fishery, since other groups are mainly dominated by girls. Chakkrit, one of the fishing group members, explains why girls are unlikely candidates of their clique.

“We have to jump knee deep into the pond to catch the fish,” he asserts, citing Tilapia, Julien’s Golden Carp, Barb and Catfish as examples of the types of fish grown there.

“For breeding we buy 4,000 to 5,000 fingerlings at a time,” he adds. Moreover, these Grade 9 boys are trained to process them into food items.

“I enjoy fishery very much, it’s fun and it makes me want to start raising fish at home too,” Chakkrit confirms. “Above all, it teaches our group about unity, management and responsibility. For example, we still have to come to school and care for our fish even if it’s during the holidays.”

And at the end of the year, when the fish is fully grown, the students sell them. “It earns us several hundred Baht per semester,” the 14-year-old confides.

“The students get to really practise and learn from their mistakes at the school. When they grow up, they can make use of their fishery skills in their profession,” says Dr. Vichien, a consulting teacher to the fishery group.

“My hope is for Baan Sang Ko School students to use their skills to benefit their families and the community. My role is to continue to support them,” Dr. Vichien says proudly.

By Duangporn Choktippattana