Thailand Plans Information Network for Farmers by Phairath Khampha 16 November 2001 Thailand's government plans to feed farmers information on crop production and marketing through a new Agricultural Information Network (AIN). The Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC), the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives and the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre on November 14, 2001 signed an agreement to establish AIN. Deputy Finance Minister Warathep Rattankorn said the information network would provide farmers with easier access to the information they need. It also would allow for the setting up of a Grameen-style banking system that would allow farmers access to low-cost micro-financing, rather than have to rely on usurious loan-sharks. AIN would provide the data for risk assessment of the micro-loans. AIN would, hopefully, integrate data currently scattered among many government agencies. The government has planned to spend about 150 million baht to 200 million baht [1 US Dollar = 44.48 Thai Baht] on the project, and expects to deliver all services by the end of 2003. The network would provide information on such matters as soil quality, plants, livestock, weather and other risk factors. The information will not only prove useful for policymakers but also provide a guideline for farmers in how to run their own businesses, Warathep said. The agricultural and market-price data would be accessible at BAAC branches and community computer-service centres. Warathep claimed at least 5 million of the about 5.6 million farm households nationwide would benefit from the programme. 5.1 million such households are customers of BAAC. By the end of January 2002 the government expected to launch a pilot project in five provinces - Chiang Mai, Khon Kaen, Surat Thani, Suphan Buri and one province from the eastern region, either Rayong or Chon Buri. The AIN would be Internet-based, with an interactive web site containing all the necessary data, risk analyses routines--all based on a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) foundation, including maps with various layers containing graphically-based soils, cropping, demographic, water resources, inputs, markets, and financing information. BAAC loan officers operating in the field would assist farmers to use the AIN's database to plan cropping and other farming activity decision-making based on prevailing market, climate and financial conditions, thus reducing the level of loan risk on money lent for agricultural activities. The program should also teach farmers more responsible financing techniques related to farming operations and encourage increased cropping diversity, thus reducing the risks associated with mono-cropping, which in Thailand is typically rice, currently a low-value crop. It should also see farmers having to rely much less on usurious and unscrupulous loan sharks, typically ethnic Chinese, who prey on poverty-stricken people, thus allowing the farmers to escape out of their debt traps sprung by the loan sharks. This should result in increased profits arising out of the farming revenues and is money that can be better put to use to build local capital bases and help improve both the local as well as the national economies. The interactive web site is being developed by Versatile Mobile Systems in their Vancouver, Canada office. Given that the system has to be operated by mainly Thai-speaking users with only a limkted understanding of English, the challenge for the developer was to develop a Thai-language user interface. This required a proper understanding of the Thai-language lexicon as well as web-based jargon and the ability to produce the text in the Thai language, which uses an alphabet completely different in characters and structure than English. Fortunately, Versatile Mobile Systems was able to retain a Canadian professional engineer, Bob Vidoni, who is fluent in the Thai language and has extensive web-based programming abilities, to assist Versatile in producing the Thai-language user interface for this exciting development project.