The document discusses sustainable development in the Thai highlands over the past 40 years, focusing on the experiences of the Thai-Australian Highland Agricultural Project (TAHAP) from 1976-1981. It provides context on views of the highlands and the goals of TAHAP, which conducted applied research on improving livestock and food production while training local officials and researchers. The project generated technical information but imported solutions were sometimes misguided. Overall, the document argues that sustainable highland development requires long-term, flexible plans informed by participatory research that considers local socioeconomic needs and constraints.

1. Sustainable Development in the
Thai Highlands:
Some Experiences from the
Thai-Australian Highland
Agricultural Project
Lindsay Falvey
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2. Sustainable Highland Development
• Various development approaches
• Diverse experiences
• Thai-Australian Highland Development
Project
• Critical elements for sustainable
development
• General lessons from 40 years
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3. Sustainable Highland Development
One view:
• Inaccessible
• Environmentally fragile
• Politically marginalized
• Culturally diverse
Another view:
• Freedom from demands of civilization
• Communication technologies are ending an era
Yet another view:
• Opportune time to review past experience
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4. Sustainable Highland Development
‘sustainable development’ of the highlands
simply means guiding enhanced long-
term use in a manner that causes
minimal negative impact.
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5. Sustainable Highland Development
development must be informed
by knowledge
generated by research and experience.
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6. Sustainable Development
The World Highlands Huddleston et al (2003)
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7. Sustainable Highland Development
there are diverse sources of relevant knowledge
and experience around the globe.
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8. Sustainable Highland Development?
•
Having it all? participatory research; stakeholders engagement;
local research and development networks; participatory
project planning; realistic objectives; continuity post-project;
baseline surveys; rapid returns and longer-term benefits; less
labor or costs
plans cannot be practical unless they
include flexibility to change during
implementation
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9. Sustainable Development: Asian Highlands
Contiguous areas above 300m altitude across
Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Laos,
Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam
>100 million persons Michaud J., 1997
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10. Sustainable Development: Thai Highlands
Thai highlands: north-south steep
ranges mostly between
500 and 2,000m in altitude
separated by the Nan, Ping, Salween,
Wang and Yom rivers
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11. Sustainable Development in the Highlands
Is it:
• sustainable opium production?
• sustainable cultures and traditions?
• sustainable watersheds?
• sustainable political control?
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12. Sustainable Development: Thai Highlands
40 years ago:
• Some roads; steep walking & mule tracks
• Trade in opium, guns and jade
• Opium >c.1,000m planted in association with corn
• Foreign drug control & alternative enterprises
the corporate memory of research and
development can be unproductively short in
aid environments
ใครลืมประวัติซ้ำควำมผิดพลำด
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13. Sustainable Development: Thai Australian
Highland Agricultural Project
• National Economic Development Plan 1972-76
designated the Department of Public Welfare
/ Tribal Research Centre for highland
development
• Supported by Royal Projects, Chiang Mai
University and Integrated Forest and Land Use
Project (FAO), Crop Replacement Project
(UNPDAC), and the Thai-Australia Highland
Agricultural Project
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14. Sustainable Development: Thai Australian
Highland Agricultural Project
• TAHAP (1976) followed the Highland Agronomy Project (1972)
• Based on Australian tropical legume pasture experience
• Desmodium intortum into Imperata cylindrica grasslands
• Grasslands from shifting agriculture imagined to be extensive
• TAHAP generated useful technical information
• Pastures results more useful in other highlands
imported ideas of problems and solutions often
misconceived real development needs, and
development impacts are often well beyond
the projects in which they were conducted
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15. Sustainable Development: Thai Australian
Highland Agricultural Project
From 1976 working at Chiang Mai University Faculty of Agriculture, TAHAP
was justified as integrating highlanders into Thai society and reducing
opium farming to conduct:
… applied research to improve the livestock industry and
subsistence food production of the hilltribe people of
northern Thailand. A further objective was to assist in
the training of extension officers of the Department of
Public Welfare involved in highland development, and
to help the Faculty of Agriculture at Chiangmai
University increase its capacity to train scientists and
to undertake research in the highlands.
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16. Sustainable Development: Thai Australian
Highland Agricultural Project
• Agronomy: Pigeon pea most for subsistence and cash;
maturity, planting regime, hedgerow, varieties,
fertilizer, pests, intercropping. Upland rice, forestry and
pasture research - soil deficiencies
• Livestock: Cattle – socio economic; protein & mineral
deficiencies. Pigs – traditional black pigs (fat, meat and
savings) diet, worms, flooring. Sheep unproductive.
• Extension: cultural compatibilities; communication;
sociological surveys, nutrition improvement; linkages
to other projects; integration with earlier
anthropological and technical research
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17. Sustainable Development: Thai Australian
Highland Agricultural Project
• After 5 years ≈100 articles
• Mainly research project - uncommon
development relies on real information from
research, and development research relies on
an understanding of the socio-economic
values and constraints in order to design its
technical experiments.
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18. Sustainable Development: Thai Australian
Highland Agricultural Project
Beyond TAHAP: small in a charged environment:
border control; drugs
middle-class environmental sensitivities
nation building; ethnic friction
immigration; corruption
TAHAP’s impacts years later and unpredicted
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19. Sustainable Development: Thai Highlands
Challenges remain: e.g.
• Foreign misconceptions
• Rights to enter market economies
• External cultural defenders
• Stronger national governance
• Commercial development
further research and education needed
despite the angst expressed in various studies,
highland agricultural development has been
a marked success over these 40 years
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20. Sustainable Development: Thai Australian
Highland Agricultural Project
Conclusion:
1. Long-term minimal impact resource use informed
by research from global experience needs flexibility
and corporate memory.
2. Development relies on research which relies on
socio-economic understanding.
3. Highland agricultural research for development has
been, and will be, a beneficial reality.
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