Khom Loy Sustainable Agriculture Project Photo Gallery

Economic Development > Khom Loy Sustainable Agriculture Project (#1557) > Photo Gallery

Khom Loy Sustainable Agriculture Project

Khom Loy Sustainable Agriculture Project	The Future is Now! A young member of the Mien Hilltribe, whose parents are part of the Khom Loy Development Project, plays on a school playground. He, and many other hilltribe children like him, will have a more certain future as the Khom Loy Development Project expands its services throughout the mountains of Chiang Rai Province in northern Thailand.
A Village on the Move! SukGasem is one of the resettlement villages in the mountains above Chiang Rai Hilltribe people now call home. Several SukGasem families have begun to participate in the Khom Loy Development Project and now work at pig husbandry, fish farming and cash crop cultivation. Many more are on the waiting list and will become part of the Project as funds become available.	Another Village Joins the Project SaenDtaw is another tribal resettlement village poised to join the Khom Loy Development Project as funds become available. As with villagers in other such locations, those in SaenDtaw are seeking the means to support themselves and become part of the lowland economy as they must move away from their traditional way of life.
A Little Husbandry Goes a Long Way! The Khom Loy Development Project has introduced sound animal husbandry practices in various hilltribe villages, and they are already seeing the fruits of their labor. Pigs raised in controlled conditions are healthier and are having larger litters. Participating villagers now have an additional source of food, and are able to consider marketing their animals, as well.	Vegetables to Write Home About Khun Yot, Field officer for Ag Project of Khom Loy and an Akha, stands with Paul Hancock, the founder of Khom Loy, and an Akha woman as they admire a squash from her kitchen garden. The woman and her family are currently receiving funds for the garden seeds, but would like to expand their participation as additional funding becomes available.
A Hiking Tour Hilltribe people from resettlement villages tour a mountain pineapple field in a neighboring village already part of the Khom Loy Project. Pineapple harvested from this field will be sold in lowland Thailand. The villagers in the photo hope to duplicate this effort in their own locations as funding becomes available.	Teach a Person to Fish.... One of the more dramatic efforts of Khom Loy is its fish-farming project. Until recently, tribal people did not consider fish a part of their diet and fishing was an unknown pasttime. But with the introduction of this project and the tilapia, a fish high in protein, villagers are happily seeing significant improvement in their family's health and, again, are discovering another means for entering a cash-based economy through marketing their catch.
Going Green! As stewards of the environment, Khom Loy Project staff members are helping hilltribe villagers develop an understanding of the benefits of using organic fertilizers rather than the array of chemicals available in the marketplace. Here a group of villagers learn how to prepare a fertilizer that will assure them of healthy soil and bodies for years to come.	A Little Training Goes a Long Way Khom Loy's primary goal is to help people help themselves. To that end, it provides tribal people involved in agriculture projects with training on pig husbandry, fish farming and all aspects of crop cultivation. The training is one of the first parts of a project and takes place before a villager becomes a full participant.
A Time for Rest After a long day in the field, Caleb Stewart (upper right) shares a meal in an Akha home. Caleb is the managing director of Khom Loy, and served as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Thailand prior to joining the project. To his right is Paul Hancock, the founder of Khom Loy, who spends several months each year in Chiang Rai.