Nong Jane works as a farmer, half-English, graduated in biomedical sciences, left her job overseas to do organic farming.

Chat with Jennifer, a beautiful 24-year-old girl of half Thai-English descent. Graduated from Biomedical Sciences abroad Leaving working life in England Choose to live an organic lifestyle According to a foreign father, his profile is not ordinary. With the integrated agricultural method and 5 steps to revitalize the soil….

The good fortune of Thailand is that it is a country suitable for cultivation. No matter what you plant in the ground All are thriving…

This is the echo of Jennifer Innes-Taylor owner Udon Organic Farm Half-Thai-English girl, agricultural idol, who loves and grew up doing agriculture. and the story of her life It’s interesting. Because he had been exposed to life and work in foreign countries like England, but in the end he came back to live his life, mixing dirt and sand on his own farm.

Little Jennifer, aged 24 years, said that she is half Thai, half English, and her father works in the position. Advisor to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Home) His father holds a bachelor’s degree in agriculture and a master’s degree in fisheries. He had the opportunity to travel to Thailand.

Father’s trip to Thailand It is a knowledge exchange project. When coming to Thailand Still don’t know where Thailand is. Because at that time there was no internet.

“When father comes to Thailand I had gone to study Thai before, hoping to practice speaking, but when I actually came to stay in Sisaket Province, it turned out that I had to leave Isaan. What I learned It’s not like in the textbooks at all,” Nong Jane said while laughing. Before going on to tell you…

Father travels often to meet Mother, who is a Singburi native. But working at the airport So they found love. and invited each other to settle in Udon Thani Province because it was the area where Father worked on a freshwater fishing project. Nong Prajak area and saw that this place has a good location So I decided to come and live here. Total period of more than 40 years.

Nong Jane said that after her parents settled down Because father has knowledge in agriculture and want to do it So he started experimenting with growing plants. and raising animals with an area of ​​8 rai before expanding to buy additional land which land he brought to sell In the past, they used to grow cassava. and later the soil deteriorated So we bought it at an affordable price and gradually started improving the soil.

From trial and error in many ways. Nong Jennifer revealed that the method used and was successful is raising cows (Actually, any animal can do it.) But we set aside space for them to eat grass. Then cow dung was used. Mixed it with other soil plots continuously. Later, we used a method of “management” by making a path for them to eat grass. As we planted and let these cows walk Stepping on dry soil, the result is that many earthworms come back. It’s called finding every square meter. Especially in the rainy season You will see the change clearly.

“When we improve the soil, Therefore, we began to change to growing some vegetables and some fruits, resulting in a very diverse range of products such as lychees, mangoes, maprang, gooseberries, lemons, and many varieties of bananas.”

Jane said that she had always lived in the garden on the farm. I already like agricultural work. Wake up early to collect eggs, feed the chickens, water the vegetables, and help mom cook. I feel that it is one of the daily routines of life. and do not feel burdened Or what kind of tiredness? There are some who feel that the lives of teenagers are missing. Sometimes I want to go eat grilled pork with friends. I rarely go. If you want to go, you have to work in exchange, such as mowing 2 rai of grass first (laughs).

“This is what our parents taught us. What will you get? There must be an exchange. For this reason, we are used to working like this. Eat dinner in the evening. There is a table full of food. All of the dishes come from the farm itself. When I saw it I felt happy and proud.”

Later, I went to study abroad (Scotland) and graduated with a degree in biomedical engineering and at one point had to live in England. The longest is 2 years.

“Jane chose it herself. What do you want to study? Because I want to open my own worldview. We go to England every year. Only during April To go see grandma, it’s called the kids who hardly play Songkran at all. Living abroad at first felt fun and wanted to stay, but after being there for about 3 weeks, I started to get bored and wanted to go back to Thailand.”

When asked if I don’t want to go and establish myself. Build a career in England? Jennifer, a foreigner with a Thai heart, said that at first she thought and wanted to, but when she actually went to live there, the desire disappeared. For many reasons I feel that “Thailand” is home and warm, the food is better, the people are kinder.

“The food can’t compete with Thailand. Especially the variety of food There are very few options. What can be bought Only available in supermarkets But with Thailand Just leaving the house there is food and things to sell. Go to the market and there are many things to buy. There are even wild mushrooms, but there aren’t any there. For this reason, Thailand is called the Kitchen of the World. But…the advantage of England is work-life balance. If you study, study. Working hard But if I quit work, I really quit work, which we used to do. and live there I didn’t go back to Thailand for 2 years, but finally decided to come back.”

Little Jennifer said that during her time in England I’ve worked a lot. Including restaurants, cashiers, website design, house painting, repairs, all that is done is to provide an experience. or work in Bangkok I used to do internships. I don’t want to wake up early and encounter traffic jams, which is why Makes us feel “Quality of life” is also important. So we started farming seriously with integrated agriculture. and management

“The turning point for starting to seriously engage in agriculture because we began to see that The soil where rice was once grown began to have problems. The rice field used to grow a lot of rice. We get less. Some people come and say, “Why don’t you add fertilizer?” But we think that if the ecosystem is good, The response must be good. Which Father himself is trying to find an answer to Look for research or read books. And there is trial and error. Until I came across regenerative agriculture.”

Nong Jennifer revealed that there are 5 important principles of regenerative agriculture.

1. Always cover the soil surface. Don’t let the soil be open. There must be grass or trees. Cover it with straw.

2. Raise agricultural animals such as pigs and cows to use manure, or chickens can dig up the soil.

3. Always have roots in the soil. Where there are plant roots in the soil, there is usually plenty of it. Because the soil will become loose.

4. Reduce soil disturbance. Do not plow, dig or till the soil too much. Keep the ecosystem connected. Inside the soil, sometimes there are fungi or earthworms working together. If we plow, it will cause the relationship that connects to be broken.

5. Grow a variety of plants. Not planted in a monoculture Because if the plant is sick with any disease, it will all be damaged.

“When we use these 5 principles, we get a lot of productivity. We also need to know how to process it, such as freezing it. Sell ​​other products This is the answer. and more sustainable”

Jennifer said that what we have applied is the wisdom of ancient Thai people. combined with the scientific theories that Father taught which we did together

The owner of Udon Organic Farm revealed that the farm’s income has many channels. both tourism and selling produce which method of selling We choose to sell them in sets. For example, a customer wants vegetables, eggs, and meat. We have them all, so we put them together in sets to sell. Or will it be a vegetable set? Sold as a basket With sales like this, everyone is happy because they get to eat all the things they want to eat.

“We try to supplement with vegetables or fruits that we eat from overseas, such as rocket, radish, Italian tomatoes, lemons. These are popular things that can be used in cooking. Because we are confident in our safety.”

Nong Jane, who runs the farm, revealed that the target group of our farm is mostly restaurants. At the Michelin level especially healthy food or famous brand restaurants He came to support us. We also spread risk by selling online…

A half-Thai-English girl sees farming as an opportunity, even though in the past people thought that this profession was not rich. But we can make money. When calculating production, we think about how much “profit” per rai, not how much production we get. When we plant rice We actually grow it as a field. But we don’t sell tons of rice. But we sell it to people who come to visit our farm to eat. The income is higher. Moreover, we grow rice in the same farm. We can use that area to develop other things, such as raising cows and chickens, which is better than leaving them alone. While waiting for the new season, it is also important to use technology. It will help answer the question of Smart Farming. Even though the technology used is not luxurious, such as setting watering times and doing it that way, we can use technology to help manage it.

“Various technologies We can adapt it. to reduce expenses There is no need to go through a middleman. If you can do this, it will give you full income.”

At the end, little Jane and her father saw that Thailand There is good luck in terms of abundance. There are vegetables, plants, and fruits that can be eaten all year long. But in England, when it’s cold, nothing can grow. Thai people, eating is a very big deal… and they attach great importance to eating. Therefore, the wisdom of the past Regarding food, it still exists and we still find things to eat. Not like foreign things They only know what they can eat and what they can’t eat, but we still try to find things to eat. Walk into the forest and you’ll know what’s edible. What can’t be eaten is called survival in every situation…

Thairath Online special news team reports

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