Which pathway to address interrelated challenges to farm sustainability in Thailand? Views of local actors

Farms in Asian newly industrialised economies are increasingly faced with operational and structural challenges (e.g. small farm size, ageing of farmers). Public policies have generally focused little on several of these structural challenges or on links between the challenges facing farms. The future of these farms looks uncertain. However, in Thailand, multi-stakeholder dialogue on this future has been limited. This article analyses possible farm futures that actors of a rural territory in Thailand identified and the changes they were willing to support to address interrelated challenges facing the farms. These farm futures resulted from a participatory planning process, which mostly involved farmers and staff from local administrations and public agencies. Participants designed future farm scenarios that took the main operational and structural challenges facing the farms into account. The pathway designed by participants to achieve their preferred scenario involved intervention of various dimensions, e.g. water management, value chains, and farm structure. Actors expressed their readiness for several farming system transformations. They proposed actions to enhance land tenure security and youth engagement in farming, which were two topics relatively overlooked in prevailing public policies. Supporting discussions between actors of rural territories could help identify ambitious innovative pathways to address challenges to farm sustainability in Asian newly industrialised economies.