Does the COVID-19 pandemic affect social-ecological resilience of organic rice production system in Chiang Mai Province, Thailand?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24259/fs.v5i2.10642Keywords:
organic rice production, resilience, social-ecological resilience, COVID-19, Chiang MaiAbstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic affects the organic rice production system in four districts of Chiang Mai Province. Eight organic farmers were purposefully chosen as informants because they have possessed forty-seven resilience components (SERCs) needed to cope with all kinds of social-ecological change. They were asked using a structured questionnaire to assign each SERC’s contribution value before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, in which each time scoring must be coupled with entailed explanations. Then, the paired samples t-test was run to compare such means of SERCs’ contribution values to examine whether their organic rice production’s resilience was affected by the pandemic and how. Results showed the means of SERCs before and after the pandemic have no significant difference as the p-value is 1.00 at the 95% confidence interval. This meant the pandemic does not influence the organic rice production’s social-ecological resilience. But several practices and qualifications were found varying from the original to make production more suitable. The dependence on household labor and that on mutual labor exchange were respectively increased and decreased in their roles in resilience building. Labor availability was interrupted by the social distancing protocol that had restricted people from gathering. Besides, the household accounts recording was adopted more than usual for being seen as a solution to improving the household economy during the time of financial vulnerability. Importantly, relying on local goods was remarkably recognized for increased importance. This was an attempt to get access to materials possibly free from the COVID-19 contamination because of the absent transportation. These findings provide two key interests. They can be applied as a framework not only to strengthen agricultural resilience but also to propose a blueprint of coping mechanisms against the pandemic at a mass scale.
References
Anderson, J.A., & D’souza, S. (2014). From adoption claims to understanding farmers and contexts: A literature review of conservation agriculture (CA) adoption among smallholder farmers in Southern Africa. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 187, 116–132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2013.08.008
Anderson, K., & W. Martin. (2009). Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in Asia. Washington, D.C.: World Bank.
Bangkok Post. (2020). Curfew starts on Friday: All travel to nation halted for 2 weeks. Retrieved from https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1891910/curfew-starts-today
Bangkok Post. (2020). 73,000 farmers to receive Covid-19 aid on appeal. Retrieved from https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1946924/73-000-farmers-to-receive-covid-19-aid-on-appeal
Berkes, F. (2009). Evolution of co-management: Role of knowledge generation, bridging organizations and social learning. Journal of Environmental Management, 90(5), 1692-1702. https://doi.org/10.1002/jid.2992
Berkes, F., & Ross, H. (2013). Community Resilience: Toward an Integrated Approach. Society and Natural Resources, 26(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2012.736605
Boone, L., Roldan-Ruiz, I., Van linden, V., Muylle, H., & Dewulf, J. (2019). Environmental sustainability of conventional and organic farming: Accounting for ecosystem services in life cycle assessment. Science of the Total Environment, 695(10): 133841. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.133841
Bouttes, M., Darnhofer, I., & Guillaume, M. (2018). Converting to organic farming as a way to enhance adaptive capacity. Organic Agriculture, 9, 235-247. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13165-018-0225-y
Brunner, S. H., & Regamey, A. G. (2016). Policy strategies to foster the resilience of mountain social-ecological systems under uncertain global change. Environmental Science and Policy, 66, 129–139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2016.09.003
Carpenter, S., Walker, B., Anderies, J. M., & Abel, N. (2001). From metaphor to measurement: Resilience of what to what? Ecosystems, 4, 76–81. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-001-0045-9
Choenkwan, S., & Fisher, M. (2018). Introduction to the special section: Agrarian transformation in Thailand -Commodities, landscapes, and livelihoods. Forest and Society, 2(2), 112-120. http://dx.doi.org/10.24259/fs.v2i2.5356
Ciftcioglu, G. C. (2017). Assessment of the resilience of socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes: A case study from Lefke region of North Cyprus. Ecological Indicators, 73, 128–138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2016.09.036
Cullen, M. T. (2020). COVID-19 and the risk to food supply chains: How to respond? Rome: FAO. https://doi.org/10.4060/ca8388en
Darnhofer, I. (2010). Strategies of family farms to strengthen their resilience. Environment Policy and Governance, 20, 212–222. https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.547
Dixon, J. L., & Stringer, L. C. (2015). Towards a theoretical grounding of climate resilience assessments for smallholder farming systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. Resources, 4, 128-154. https://doi.org/10.3390/resources4010128
DOAE. (2013). Basic agricultural information of Chiang Mai province 2012. Chiang Mai: DOAE.
Endfield, G. H. (2012). The resilience and adaptive capacity of social-environmental systems in colonial Mexico. Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109(10), 3676-3681. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1114831109
Finley, L, Chappell, J. M., Thiers, P., & Moore, J. R. (2018). Does organic farming present greater opportunities for employment and community development than conventional farming? A survey-based investigation in California and Washington. Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 42(5), 552-572. https://doi.org/10.1080/21683565.2017.1394416
Folke, C. (2006). Resilience: The emergence of a perspective for social-ecological systems analyses. Global Environmental Change. 16: 53–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2006.04.002
Folke, C. (2016). Resilience (Republished). Ecology and Society, 21(4), 44. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09088-210444
Folke, C., Carpenter, S., Walker, B., Scheffer, M., Chapin, T., & Rockstrom, J. (2010). Resilience thinking: Integrating resilience, adaptability and transformability. Ecology and Society, 15, 20. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-03610-150420
Gallopin, G. (2006). Linkages between vulnerability, resilience and adaptive capacity. Global Environmental Change, 16(3), 293-303. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2006.02.004
Green Net. (2014). Organic Production Areas in Thailand. Retrieved from http://www.agriqua.doae.go.th/organic/oa%20produce/thai.html.
Holling, C. S. (1973). Resilience and stability of ecological systems. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 4, 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.es.04.110173.000245
Holling, C. S. (2001). Understanding the complexity of economic, ecological, and social systems. Ecosystem, 4, 390–405. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-00 -0101-5
Huang, C., Wang, Y., Li, X., Ren, L., Zhao, J., Hu, Y., & et al. (2020). Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China. Lancet, 395(10223), 497–506. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30183-5
IFOAM. (2013). Principles of organic agriculture. Bonn: IFOAM.
IFPRI. (2013). Agricultural Resilience in the Face of Crisis and Shocks. Brussels: IFPRI.
Jiggins, J., & Rölling, R. (2000). Adaptive management: Potential and limitations for ecological governance. International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance, and Ecology, 1(1), 28–42. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJARGE.2000.000003
Langley, A., Smallman, C., Tsoukas, H., & Van de Ven, A. H. (2013). Process Studies of Change in Organization and Management: Unveiling Temporality, Activity, and Flow. Academy of Management Journal, 56(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2013.4001
Koohafkan, P., Altieri, M.A., & Gimenez, E.H. (2012). Green agriculture: Foundations for biodiverse, resilient and productive agricultural systems. International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, 10, 61-75. https://doi.org/10.1080/14735903.2011.610206
Limnirankul, B., & Gypmantasiri, P. (2011). Agricultural innovation in supporting organic rice production system of smallholder farmers in Northern Thailand (Research Report). Thailand: National Science and Technology Development Agency.
Nieuwsbericht. (2020). Update on COVID-19 impact in Thailand. Retrieved from https://www.agroberichtenbuitenland.nl/actueel/nieuws/2020/04/28/update-on-covid-19-impact-in-thailand
Ortiz-Miranda, D., Moreno-Perez, O.M., & Moragues-Faus, A.M. (2010). Innovative strategies of agricultural cooperatives in the framework of the new rural development paradigms: The case of the Region of Valencia (Spain). Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 42, 661–677. https://doi.org/10.1068/a42168
Panpakdee, C. (2018). Social-ecological resilience of smallholder farmers for organic rice production in Chiang Mai Province (Doctoral dissertation). Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Panpakdee, C., & Limnirankul, B. (2018). Indicators for assessing social-ecological resilience: A case study of organic rice production in northern Thailand. Kasetsart Journal of Social Sciences, 39(3), 414-421. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.kjss.2017.07.003
Pattanapant, A., & Shivakoti, G. P. (2009). Opportunities and constraints of organic agriculture in Chiang Mai Province, Thailand. Asia-Pacific Development, 16(1), 115–147. https://doi.org/10.18356/341adb3e-en
Pucci, T., Casprini, E., Galati, A., & Zanni, L. (2020). The virtuous cycle of stakeholder engagement in developing a sustainability culture: Salcheto winery. Journal of Business Research, 119, 364-376. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.11.009
Ratanapongsai, Y. (2020). Seedling Recruitment of Native Tree Species in Active Restoration Forest. Forest and Society, 4(1): 243-255. http://dx.doi.org/10.24259/fs.v4i1.9421
Rattanasuteerakul, K., & Thapa, G. (2012). Status and financial performance of organic vegetable farming in Northeast. Land Use Policy, 29: 456. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2011.09.004
Rousseau, S., & Vranken, L. (2013). Green market expansion by reducing information asymmetries: Evidence for labeled organic food product. Food Policy, 40, 31-34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2013.01.006
Saaty, T. L. (2008). Relative measurement and its generalization in decision making why pairwise comparisons are central in mathematics for the measurement of intangible factors. Statistics and Operations Research, 102(2): 251–318. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJSSci.2008.01759
Scarborough, G., Mendez, E. V., & Bisson, A. (2014). Agroecological risk and resilience screening tool: guidance for considering agroecological impact of agriculture interventions and identifying opportunities to build resilience in food systems. Portland, OR: Mercy Corps. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.1.4516.6807
Shereen, M. A., Khan, S., Kazmi, A., Bashir, N., & Siddique, R. (2020). COVID-19 infection: Origin, transmission, and characteristics of human coronaviruses. Journal of Advanced Research, 24, 91-98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jare.2020.03.005
Stuart, A. and Werayutwattana, T. (2017). Understanding the complexities of organic farming in Thailand. Retrieved from https://www.chiangmaicitylife.com/clg/business/agriculture/understanding-the-complexities-of-organic-farming-in-thailand/
Theparat, C. & Charoensuthipan, P. (2020). Royal water project to reinvigorate farming: Social initiative helps workers laid off amid pandemic. Bangkok: Bangkok Post.
Thomas, L. (2020). What is a longitudinal study?. Retrieved from https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/longitudinal-study/
Tilt, B. (2016). Dams and population displacement on China’s Upper Mekong River: Implications for social capital and social-ecological resilience. Global Environmental Change, 36, 153–162. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2015.11.008
TMB. (2020). Industry analysis: Thai agriculture outlook after Covid-19. Bangkok: TMB.
Walsh, B. (2020). Covid-19: The history of pandemics. London: BBC. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200325-covid-19-the-history-of-pandemics
WWF. (2020). FLR349 supports marginalized communities during COVID-19 pandemic fallout. Retrieved from https://www.wwf.or.th/en/project_in_thailand/iki_scp/?uNewsID=362635
Additional Files
Published
Issue
Section
Categories
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Forest and Society
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This is an open access journal which means that all contents is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.
Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the Publisher. An article based on a section from a completed graduate dissertation may be published in Forest and Society, but only if this is allowed by author's(s') university rules. The Editors reserve the right to edit or otherwise alter all contributions, but authors will receive proofs for approval before publication.
Forest and Society operates a CC-BY 4.0 © license for journal papers. Copyright remains with the author, but Forest and Society is licensed to publish the paper, and the author agrees to make the article available with the CC-BY 4.0 license. Reproduction as another journal article in whole or in part would be plagiarism. Forest and Society reserves all rights except those granted in this copyright notice
