But today, farmers of this rice are suffering from worsening drought and lower income due to their reliance on only rice cultivation.

Now they are learning a new way that challenges their traditional belief that the arid terrain of their farms was unsuitable for any crop except khao hom mali (jasmine rice).

Phra Khru Vinaithorn Theerapong Theerapanyo, the abbot of Thung Kula Chalerm Raj temple in Roi Et province, has initiated an idea to plant vegetables during the dry season, which would help the farmers earn additional income and have a better quality of life.

Last December, the abbot asked the Agriculture Department under the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry, for an inspection and analysis of the region’s soils and water. As a result, officials found there was high salt content in the soils and very low organic matter.

Further, the officials advised the farmers to improve soils and suggested they plant morning glory as a new crop because it was easy and fast-growing and cheap to produce.

In line with the government’s People’s State scheme, a collaboration among the community, Roi Et provincial authorities, and Tesco Lotus has been formed to develop the dry land for growing other crops during the off-season rice cultivation.

“One challenge in the beginning of the project was to convince the farmers to growing morning glory. We had to change their mindset that the Thung Kula Rong Hai was suitable for only jasmine rice – they had never grown other crops. “Finally, 30 families decided to join the pilot project,” said the abbot.

Normally, the rice growing season yields one or two crops a year. With the current falling prices, each farm household earned only Bt40,000-50,000 per year. During off-season, most farmers left to work in Bangkok. The thirty pioneering families now make about Bt4,000-5,000 per crop per family, with each crop taking 20-25 days to be ready for harvest. During the rice-planting season, the farmers can also grow vegetables to make additional income.

Pornpen Nartpiriyarat, head of quality at Tesco Lotus, said his firm worked closely with the abbot and the Agriculture Department to turn 13-rai of land in the temple grounds into a field for growing vegetables. From January this year, Tesco Lotus has been buying 500 kilogrammes of morning glory a day.

Aside from the technical knowledge, Tesco Lotus educated the farmers on crop management and bookkeeping. Starting with the morning glory, Tesco Lotus is now supporting the farmers to grow other vegetables including yard-long

beans, chilies, kale, Chinese cabbages, pumpkins, spring onion, melon, local vegetables as well as flowers to supply stores in the northeastern region all year round.

In addition to the Agriculture Department, experts at Kasetsart University’s Kamphaeng Saen campus are sharing knowledge on building a greenhouse for planting vegetables.

Pornpen said that the retailer had worked with more than 3,000 farmers across 72 provinces in Thailand. They now sell their agricultural products through the Tesco Lotus direct-sourcing programme initiated in 2010. This year, the retailer plans to increase the purchase of fresh products from 100,000 tonnes in 2015 to 150,000 tonnes this year.

Among the direct-sourcing projects in 2016, Tesco Lotus will purchase vegetables from farms under the Royal patronage of Her Majesty the Queen in three southernmost provinces. Moreover, the retailer aims to purchase all longkong fruit from farmers in the Deep South, totalling more than 150 tonnes.

“Tesco Lotus works with our partner farmers to be more than a distribution channel, by using a market-led approach. This means that we assist the farmers in crop planning, ensuring they grow according to market demands and are able to meet what our customers want, both in terms of variety, quality and volume, at specific periods of time. By doing this, we are able to completely avoid having a surplus of supplies in the market, thereby resulting in good prices for the farmers,” said Pornpen.

Through the partnership with the Agriculture Department, Tesco Lotus educates farmers on safety and quality standards, with the aim of enhancing Thai farmers to achieve international standards of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP).