After two successful years of the TV series “Farmers Love”, a new series, “Farmers Love Seed” is now showing on Channel 5. The series by Better Rice Initiative Asia (BRIA) aims to reach out to farmers with key messages to promote safe, responsible, and sustainable farming practices. BRIA and BASF (Thai) Limited in close cooperation with the Rice Department (RD) are the producers of “Farmers Love Seed”, which offers knowledge on quality seeds and seed management to the audience. The series started airing on June 3 and is broadcast from 3:35 to 4:00 pm on Channel 5.
Thai rice farmers currently need more than one million tons of good quality seeds per year for their rice planting whilst the public and private sectors can produce only 600,000 tons per year. There is thus a need for the RD to increase the number of Rice Seed Centres across the country as well as provide necessary support to farmers and encourage them to produce ‘quality seeds’ by themselves. In addition, the establishment of community seed banks or seed villages nationwide will help farmers cooperate with the seed centres and become self-reliant.
What’s so special about “Farmers Love Seed”?
By watching these TV episodes, farmers will gain technical knowledge on how seeds are produced from RD experts, while BRIA and BASF will provide insights into different varieties of quality seeds (breeder, foundation, certified and registered seeds), reliable sources from whom to buy quality seeds and how to produce good quality seeds by themselves.
The “Farmers Love Seed” TV series will shed light on seed management and how quality seed could help reduce the amount of seed by 50 per cent per hectare according to the RD, and increase productivity by 10 percent. Once costs are reduced, BRIA believes that farmers’ profits will improve.
“Rice seeds are at the heart of Rice Department; we need to produce enough to meet farmers’ needs,” said Mr. Anan Suwannarat, RD Director-General, highlighting the important role that good quality seed plays. He added that the RD fully supports the provision of knowledge on seed production to contribute to better rice quality. He commended the “Farmer Love” series for teaching farmers nationwide about such appropriate farming practices as soil sampling for analysis, soil testing, bookkeeping, land preparation, water management, better seed management, and proper use of personal protective equipment (PPE).
What are the topics?
Compared with the previous two series in 2014 and 2015, BRIA expects to attract a wider audience this year since the series is being aired on free TV and thus has a wider target group. “Farmers Love Seed” is made up of the following episodes:
Episode |
Content |
Air Date |
1 |
BRIA Project Background and Introduction |
3 June 16 |
2 |
Flashbacks of Farmers Love Safety |
10 June 16 |
3 |
Talk with Local Seed Expert |
17 June 16 |
4 |
Talk with Local Seed Expert |
24 June 16 |
5 |
Junior Farmer Selection |
1 July 16 |
6 |
Knowledge about Quality Seeds |
8 July 16 |
7 |
Production of Breeder and Foundation Seeds |
15 July 16 |
8 |
A tour of rice seed center or seed village – where farmers can buy ‘quality seeds’ |
22 July 16 |
9 – 13 |
How farmers produce quality seeds (from production planning, land preparation, seed selection, cultivation, harvest, and drying to storage) |
29 July– 2 September, 16 except on Mother’s Day |
14 |
Talk with Junior Farmers: what have they learned about seed and rice farming? |
9 September 16 |
15 |
Program Conclusion |
16 September 16 |
Apart from the knowledge on ”quality seed” and “seed production,” the programme also features a video clip contest on the theme “what would you say if you were a farmer” in which high school students are invited to participate. This approach aims to attract greater attention from the younger generations, especially those from farmer families.