Rehabilitation of Rainfed Uplands by Incoporating |
The rainfed uplands of northern Thailand occupies about 5.48 mha or 30 percent of total land area of the North. Traditional land-use systems consist of monoculture of annual cash crops such as sugar cane, soybean, maize, cassava, cotton, etc and fruit crops such as mango, citrus. The production potential of the areas very a great deal, but those areas designated for the Land Reform Project- allocating lands for the landless, normally located in the less favourable environment, thus farming would be much more difficult.
The MCC has selected the Chom Tong Land Reform Project area to represent the less favorable rainfed uplands of the North with average annual rainfall of about 700 mm. The soil is loamy sand with OM of 0.7 percent.
The existing sole cropping of soybean was no longer profitable. Fruit trees with multiple functions were introduced to develop a more sustainable land –use systems to provide stable incomes. Mango was selected as the most sdapted species, and 15 commercial table-type varieties (Chock-Anan, Nam Dok Mai, Salaya and Kaew Leum Rang) were shown to be most ideal clones were identified. Meanwhile hand-on propagation technique was organized to train the local farmers for seedling multiplication.
However the table-type mango varieties required medium to high management skill and would not suitable for low input, resource-poor farmers. The local dual-purpose variety, commonly known as Kaew, was more preferable. The fruit can be consumed directly as fruit, salad mixed dish or used for processing. Fruiting habit is yearly, and the variety is generally adapted to wide range of environments.
The current research activity is thus concentrating on the development of local mango var. Kaew for table as well as for processing in the rainfed uplands.
Overall research framework to develop mango varieties for processing
Source of local mango cv. Kaew in 8 provinces of the upper North.
Inflorescence of Kaew mango
Fruit base of Kaew mango
(for more information, contact tavatcha@chiangmai.ac.th)
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