There were cows, goats, and horses in almost every farmhouse and farmland. The fields were brown with only one meal of garlic just harvested, but it seems that the basic cycle is garlic-soybean-rice in one place all year round. In this area, where the weather is warm all year round and the two seasons are dry and humid, the vegetable lineup remains almost the same all year round even without greenhouses, and the varieties of fruits and other produce change only monthly, so bananas and mangoes are never out of the market.
Cows play an important role as an additional source of income for farmers. They raise calves and make them bigger so that they will be ready when they need a large sum of money, such as when their children start school. As long as they are fed grass every day and are healthy, cows are a good source of cash. Having cows is a matter of course for ordinary farmers, and the mountainous farming villages with more cows than people seemed like the original landscape of Japan before its rapid economic growth. Riding along the road on my motorcycle, I would see cows, goats, and horses either grazing or sitting by the side of the road, munching and ruminating, and I could only smile.
As farming became more mechanized and efficient, crop farming and animal farming became clearly differentiated and divided into separate operations. Livestock not only eat weeds and fertilize themselves, but also produce fertilizer for the soil and grow crops. And when they grow up to be meat, they support the farmer's livelihood. The organic relationship between plants, animals, and humans is still very much alive in Pai. However, the use of chemicals such as pesticides is still mainstream here, and drones are used to spray pesticides during the rice and soybean growing season. Preventing diseases, increasing yields, and ensuring income are life-or-death matters for farmers in any country. However, Kero-chan did not want to pollute the clean air, so she searched for land in the surrounding areas where pesticides were not used, and ended up where she is now.
The average monthly income of farmers in Thailand is less than 40,000 Japanese yen. It is not easy for people living on the edge to take the risk of switching to pesticide-free farming. If yields were to decrease, their barely scraping by would be out. Farmers are always facing big risks. Sometimes nature is generous with its bounty, and other times it takes it all away without mercy. Anyone can condemn farming methods. It's easy to buy organic products if you have the heart and money to do so. But the fact is that just saying it or buying it won't change the situation much.
There is no doubt that pesticides are harmful to the environment and our bodies, and buying pesticide-free products is a very meaningful thing. But that doesn't change the fact that we are consumers who have become dogs of capitalism. My eating habits may have changed, but I am still a consumer, just with a different consumption style. It is not enough to just buy something. There are many things you can learn only by growing something yourself without using pesticides.
Insects eat the fruit you have carefully nurtured, the wind reaps you, boars mess it up, and many other events happen every day. Still, we must use our intellect without losing heart and protect those that survive tomorrow. Of course, if you are a grass farmer for subsistence rather than a professional farmer, the disappointment of failure does not include financial loss because it is not a problem that directly affects your income.
Even beginners can start practicing chemical-free cultivation by growing herbs they use on a daily basis and fruit trees that will bear fruit after years of planting, just like Kero. The future of agriculture is one of the social problems that we are concerned about, but you already have the solution in your hands.
