Pa Khae, 60, is head of a family of nine. He joined the Community Agriculture Programme (CAP) about four years ago.

Since then Pa Khae has participated in trainings in basic agriculture, organic farming, soil type and soil health, seed saving and compost making, provided by CAP staff.

He has been chosen by other CAP participants to be the leader of a cluster group of 35 households working in a community garden outside the camp, and of another group of 12 households working on kitchen gardens inside the camp.

His job is to organise Farmer Field School trainings and encourage the participants to share their experiences. He also supports and teaches the members of his cluster group to save seeds and distribute them. In one season he saved about 40 different kinds of indigenous seeds and distributed them to anyone who needed them.

Pa Khae is also caretaker of the community garden, and he manages the water supply system so that participants receive equal amounts of water during the dry season.

Pa Khae is earning an average of 1,500 baht per month selling vegetables from his garden. He says, with pride: ‘In addition to the income, I have enough fresh and nutritious vegetables every day for my family.’ He would like to see more agriculture trainings for new CAP participants, so that more people may have good gardens that provide both food and motivation.