January 21, 2010
The Government of Japan is extending Grant Assistance for the Grassroots Human Security Project scheme (GGP) to “The Project for Environment Protection and Empowerment of Local People through Sustainable Development of Sago Palm Ecology ” coordinated by the Yadfon Foundation. Mr. Kyoji KOMACHI, Ambassador of Japan to the Kingdom of Thailand and Mr. Pisit Charnsnoh, President of the foundation, signed the contract on January 20th 2010 at the Embassy of Japan.
Na Yong district of Trang province is located in the southern part of Thailand. Recently agricultural fields have been converted to rubber plantations because of increased world wide demand for rubber. This has destabilized farmers’ lives. The price of rubbers fluctuates, and a lot of fertilizer is needed.
In this area, a lot of sago palms grow along side canals. Sago palms help to maintain water level in the canals, enabling farming activity in the dry season. Decently however, people have been cutting down the palm, making farming difficult.
The Japanese government has agreed to a request from the Yadfon Foundation to support the construction of training facilities in order to teach farmers about the conservation of sago palm and train them in the production of food from sago palm. The total cast is 2,724,400Baht.
Through this project, farmer will have a more stable livelihood, and at the some time contribute to the control of global warming because the sago palm has a role in absorbing carbon dioxide.
The Government of Japan is willing to consider providing further support to projects which contribute to social and economic development at the grassroots level through the GGP scheme.
