The importance of the role of education in achieving sus-tainable development is underscored by the UN Decade of Educa-tion for Sustainable Development (DESD). As the final year of the DESD ap-proaching in 2014 and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Educa-tion for All (EFA) goals approaching their target date in 2015, this article provides an overview of the emerging context in which Education for Sustainable Devel-opment (ESD) and EFA are played out, based primarily on the review of the re-cent UN publications. Building upon the outcomes of the Rio+20 conference and on-going rethinking of development trajectories, the article calls for going beyond the traditional ESD-EFA dialogue and reshaping education as a critical lever for realizing more resilient, equitable and sustainable societies. The understanding that people are essential agents for redirecting development paths should pro-foundly change the ways in which education policy-makers craft and implement education policy.

This paper examines the significance of the concepts of EFA and ESD occurring in attempts at education reform and education improve-ment in developing countries, and discusses the issues found therein. Within this discussion, this paper analyzes why it is important to implement ESD on multiple occasions along with the promotion of EFA, with particular focus on the im-portance of the role of education in achieving a democratic society. This paper will also consider the state of “citizenship education,” which is thought to hold a major key to the promotion of ESD. Based on the above conceptu-al examination, this paper then provides an overview of how ESD is being pro-moted in Cambodia today in historical, social, and cultural contexts as part of the implementation of EFA, from three perspectives: (1) acquisition and improve-ment of life skills; (2) enhancing environmental education; and (3) promotion of peace education and human rights education. It is worth noting here that although the educational activities conducted in Cambodia are not necessarily known as ESD, they certainly embody its principles and characteristics. Although EFA fo-cuses on the diverse states of education in and out of school, its chief concern lies in enhancing the quantity and quality of school education. Moreover, funda-mentally, it is public organizations, such as governments under international agreements, who take on most of the responsibility of promoting EFA, expanding basic education together with various other stakeholders. In contrast to this so-called top-down feature of EFA, ESD is a more bottom-up operation, based on autonomic educational activities by proactive citizens; the areas it covers include a wide range of issues, such as daily life, social forms, and the natural environ-ment. As a conclusion, the paper emphasizes that the positioning of EFA and ESD as essential lifelong learning is important to achieve a sustainable society.

The article is an attempt to describe the challenges and opportunities in integrating ESD into mainstream policy-making in the Asia-Pacific. The role of education in development is variably understood. It is widely recognized as a sui generis guarantor of personal and collective development. Educating for sustainable development has much untapped poten-tial both in driving development in general and improving the contribution of edu-cation as a sector within development. ESD in the Asia-Pacific has diverse forms of expression. Effective, frank and constructive intellectual exchanges could lead to significant progress in ESD. Reorienting “quality” in education should assume priority position in education and will ideally, for the sake of its relevance, appeal and continued development, include several dimensions of sustainable develop-ment.

Cambodia is located in Southeastern Asia with more than 70% of population is living in rural areas and engaged in agriculture and related sectors. Agriculture is the most important sector for the country, and the government focuses on increasing productivity and trying to meet the international market demand. However, farmers are usually less educated and there are difficulties and obstacles for local farmers to increase knowledge for better ways of agriculture and creating better quality of life. Most of farmers apply agricultural chemicals with low knowledge to increase crop yields that causes various illnesses of local farmers and environmental problems. Statistical data showed that literacy rate of Cambodia from 2005 to 2010 was only 74% for over age of 15 years old. The rate in rural area was much worse than the city. Education for All (EFA) aims to provide quality basic education for “every citizen in every society.” Although education is one of the fundamental factors for the country to be developed, daily life security such as basic and stable income is more significant for local people. However, ensuring stable income needs basic education such as literacy and basic numerical ability. This paper deals with environmental education through eri-culture, raising eri silkworms, for reducing amounts of chemical pesticide taking into account the perspective of Education for All (EFA) and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Following the first survey in March 2011 for evaluating the potential of local farmers to reduce chemical pesticide through eri-culture, the results showed that expected percentage of chemical pesticide to be reduced for eri silk-raising farmers was remarkably higher than the other farmers. However, research interests have been focused on how much amounts of chemical pesticide local farmers succeeded to reduce compared to the conventional use. So, this study dealt with the evaluation of the amounts of chemical pesticide reduced through eri-culture in Kampong Cham province, Cambodia. The results showed that 35% of eri silk-raising farmers reduced the amounts of chemical pesticide to 80 to 100%, 45 % of eri silk-raising farmers reduced to 60 to 80% while only 5% of eri silk-raising farmers reduced to 20-40% and other 50% reduced to 0-20%. Consequently, eri silk-raising farmers succeeded to reduce the amounts of chemical pesticide use through eri-culture, and eri-culture has educational function to increase the environmental awareness to local farmers, especially, in terms of reducing chemical pesticide use.

As a developing country that is heavily dependent on agriculture, Cambodia has been severely affected by natural hazards. Since the 1990s, there has been an increase in the frequency and severity of flooding and drought induced or exacerbated by climate change. Literature has demonstrated that Cambodia is very vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change. Vulnerability, as posited by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is a function of the character, magnitude and rate of climate change and variation to which a system is exposed, its sensitivity and its adaptive capacity. This paper measures the vulnerability as expected poverty (VEP), introduced by Shubham Chaudhuri, in a province in Cambodia, Kampong Speu (KPS), using household survey data. The results show that among all of the exposures to natural hazards in Cambodia, drought poses the highest risk for rain-fed agriculture dependent households. The VEP shows that more than 60% of households in the KPS province are vulnerable to climate change with an income threshold of US $1 per day. Some policy recommendations resulting from this study include building irrigation systems to mitigate the impacts of droughts, ensuring secondary income generation opportunities for poor households so that households do not depend exclusively on agriculture, and increasing the education level of villagers.

It is stated in the National Education Act of Thailand that there shall be the application of local knowledge in teaching-learning process of academic subjects in various educational levels. In order to assess a suitable pro-cedure on how to integrate local knowledge into teaching-learning activities of ag-ricultural subjects in primary education, this research was conducted by collecting data from teachers, students, administrators and community leaders in Khon Kaen Province, Thailand, through survey, case studies, training and seminars. It was summarized that there should be four stages in integrating local knowledge into the educational process of agricultural subjects. These included: 1) raising awareness on the importance of local knowledge and building cooperation among relevant persons, such as educational administrators, community leaders, local intellectuals, students and parents; 2) preparing a lesson plan with suitable contents, materials and resources; 3) conducting teaching-learning and evaluation activities; and 4) disseminating the outputs from teaching-learning activities to the public. Agriculture teachers had a prominent role in all four stages and their du-ties on studying, selecting, integrating and disseminating local knowledge were de-fined.

An on-farm pond is an essential technique for water resources management in northeast Thailand. It can be used for many purposes e.g. farm water supply, supplementary irrigation, livestock, aquaculture, and flood mitigation. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the suitability of two calculation methods for on-farm pond water budget. Two on-farm ponds in Ban Wangwa were selected to be the study sites and the water balance of the ponds including water inflow and water outflow components were calculated. Water inflow was determined by two methods, namely watershed routing and synthetic unit hydrograph. The results show that the synthetic unit hydrograph method gives the better agreement to the observed data than the watershed routing method in both of peak discharge and runoff volume. The main causes of water losses are evaporation, water usage, and seepage. Evaporation from the ponds was determined by two methods, namely the Penman method using Priestley-Taylor evaporation equation and the Evaporation pan method. Subsequently coefficient of the Priestley-Taylor evaporation (α) and coefficient of the evaporation pans (K_p) are 1.66 and 0.88, respectively. The evaporation by pan evaporation is fast, simple and easier than Priestley-Taylor evaporation.

Conservation policy, plans and implementation require the integration and management of a multitude of disciplines including the natural, physical and social sciences, law, economics and government policy. This study describes several major steps to implement a conservation plan for degraded rivers in Thailand and provides new approaches to assist in repairing degraded freshwater fish communities. Conservation of aquatic animals requires an understanding of their environmental requirements, preferences and species associations to accompany existing tactics to improve physical and chemical conditions of rivers. At present this ecological information is dreadfully inadequate in Thailand. Some freshwater environments in Thailand are currently experiencing an alarming decline in biodiversity. As a result, scientists and managers should undertake immediate management techniques to protect what remains of these aquatic systems. First step in conservation is to recognize a need and this is not likely to be easy. Effective conservation projects are likely to be lead by a committee representing a wide range of expertise including ecology, policy, law, economics and sociology along with appropriate government representatives. Second step is to determine objectives and an implementation strategy. Each river is dynamic and unique. Conservation may be approached and applied in different ways depend-ing on human and financial resources, timeframe, information and severity of resource depletion, including recovery, rehabilitation, restoration and replacement. A third step might include restructuring the biotic community in a degraded river once the physical damage or source of contamination has been contained and the chemical and physical conditions repaired. Conservation planning is an activity in which social, economic and political imperatives may modify, sometimes drastically, scientific prescriptions. This interaction need not be all one way.

The objective of this experiment was to determine the ef-fect of culture media (Tyrode Albumin Lactate Pyruvate-In Vitro Fertilization-Synthetic Oviduct Fluid; TALP-IVF-SOF and SAGE media^TM) on fertili-zation rate in bovine and caprine embryos production. Thai crossbred bovine ovaries (n=40) were collected at a local abattoir located in Khon Kaen municipali-ty. Caprine ovaries (n=22) were collected by the surgery method at the Depart-ment of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Khon Kaen Uni-versity. In order to compare the culture media, oocytes were recovered and ran-domly cultured in TALP-IVF-SOF and SAGE media^TM during in vitro oocytes maturation and fertilization as described by the standard protocols for in vitro maturation, in vitro fertilization and in vitro culture, respectively. Oocytes, obtained from ovaries with corpus luteum (CL) and without CL, were recovered and determined as recovery rate prior in vitro culture. The results revealed that the recovery rates of bovine and caprine oocytes were not significantly different between ovaries with CL (58.5 and 27.6%) without CL (43.5 and 29.4%) respec-tively; bovine oocytes had significantly more layers of cumulus than caprine oo-cytes. IVF and IVC, developed from two cells to blastocyst stage, derived from SAGE media^TM were better than that of TALP-IVF-SOF.

This study was conducted in Kandal Steng and Saang District, Kandal Province, Cambodia, to determine the constraints on small scale cattle production in this area. Sixty small holding cattle keepers were interviewed using semi-structure questionnaires. Faeces samples from 80 cattle were selected and subjected to intestinal parasite investigation at the Royal University of Agriculture Laboratory. Cattle are kept for draught power and reproduction purposes. Crossbreed animal types were dominant in these areas. The average herd size is 2.5, ranging from 2 to 3 heads. Eighty five of respondents practiced vaccination and 26% de-worming. However, the Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and Haemorrhage Septicaemia disease usually occurred as it was mentioned by farmers. Five types of parasites (Fasciola, Paramphystomum, Gastro-intestinal strong (GIS), Eimeria and Toxocara) had been detected; majority of GIS (68%) was found in feaces. The farmers expressed that the major constraints to cattle production are disease outbreak (95%), lack of feed (35%) and that price of cattle is low (26%). In order to improve livestock production at small scale level, animal health services for vaccination and treatment should be strengthened and animal bio-security management should be applied. Technical support should be in place, in order to encourage farmers to provide proper feeding management, sufficient amount and quality of food so that growth rate, reproductive performance and disease resistance of animals can be improved.

Cassava, an agro-industry crop, has been cultivated for years by farmers; however, it was not popular in the past. Recently, the market demand for cassava root has radically increased; hence, the number of farmers and cultivated areas has boosted considerably. This study on Cassava Marketing was conducted to measure: 1) cassava household production, 2) cassava marketing, and 3) the important of cassava production in farmer household. 81 producers, 5 traders and 4 key informants in Chang Krang commune, ChhetBurei district, Kratie province were selected. Multiple tools in Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) method were employed. The result of the study shows that the majority (95%) of Chang Krang commune farmers depend on Cassava production. The cultivating method is operated in a traditional way and depends on rain fed-crop. The majority of households own more than one ha of cassava field. Mostly, cassava is converted into dry chip and sold between January and March; the average price was 850 riels/kg. Approximately ninety five percent of the yield is exported to Vietnam. The cassava marketing pattern in the selected area was appropriate as not only are they rich in middlemen, but also the location is close to the Vietnamese border. The cassava price is defined by Vietnamese buyers and the information regarding to market price was limited. Most farmers could get benefit both from cassava root and trunk. Cassava production contributed 87.68% to rural livelihood. The advantages of planting cassava included not only generating family income but also employing rural workers and reducing local and cross border migration. In conclusion, cassava production is very important for farmers in Chang Krang commune and the marketing situation is the main factor that effects production chain.

Ang Trapeang Thmor (ATT) is a protected area (PA) which history dates back to the late 1970s with the creation of a huge reservoir for rice irrigation during the Khmer Rouge reign. The designation of ATT as a crane sanctuary in 2000 led to changes in use and management of resources around the area. This study sets to identify the local livelihood strategies in Pongro and Sambour and to define the level of participation, acceptance and understanding of the need for conservation of the Protected Area. Some methods have been selected to collect necessary data such as informal interviews, participatory rural appraisal (PRA) such as a drawing exercise with school children on environmental education and children’s perceptions, awareness on ATT, and nature. Furthermore, focus group discussions were conducted with two groups of villagers separately. The findings reveal that a very common practice of households at Pongro and Sambuor were wet season rice cultivation in ATT, livestock breeding, vegetable growing, collecting NTFP and fishing in ATT. The general perception of the villagers on ATT is negative probably because they passively participate in the management of it and due to the lack of understanding of the aim of the conservation project. There are conflicts between Pongro and Sambuor opposed to the villages south of the main gate of the reservoir over water levels on the reservoir. Water levels and recent increase in cassava prices have led to illegal encroachment into a state forest East of ATT. However the conservation of ATT and the surrounding natural resources still present opportunities in connection to tourism and community forestry that can be beneficial to the villagers of Pongro and Sambuor.

Kiensvay district, Kandal province is a popular place for mango leather processed in Cambodia where plenty of mango trees are grown. However, due to lack of skill and technical knowledge of the people, the product has failed to make economic impact on their livelihoods due to poor product quality that does not meet market standards. Poor sanitation and lack of technical information are mainly responsible for this situation. This study was conducted among producers and farmers in the selected area with the objective to gain an understanding of the technical processing methods and to analyse the economic viability of this product. 55 people in these districts were interviewed with semi-open questionnaire: details of each family’s technical method for mango leather processing were collected. The initial results were used to identify various techniques used by farmers in the processing method. Then, yes/no questionnaire was applied to 20 people in order to deeply understand the process. After this, the technical processes used by farmers were categorised. Experiments were carried out on farmers techniques and tested in controlled laboratory conditions of Graduate School of Royal University of Agriculture. The results of this research will provide an insight into the best processing technique that may be used for commercial development with the aim of improving the income and livelihoods of the inhabitants.

The objective of this research was to establish suitable conditions for rice liquor (Sraa sor) in order to improve its productivity in rural areas. Five treatments of fermented rice conditions were used: cool temperature, ambient temperature, ambient temperature with plastic bag-covered pot, high temperature and room temperature condition. Data of tem-perature, productivity, pure ethanol and ethanol percentage was collected. The da-ta was analyzed using SPSS version 15 in general linear model univariate to iden-tify the significant level. The results of analysis indicated that fermentation tem-perature had a strong significance at (p<0.05). Fermented rice changeable temper-ature was caused by ambient temperature. So the ambient temperature is very necessary for fermented rice conditions. Yeast activity is reduced by low tem-perature. At temperature between 30-38 °C in the fermented rice condition, the productivity, pure ethanol and ethanol percentage had strong significance (p<0.05). Lowest productivity was observed in cool temperature condition. In summary, rice fermentation in room temperature was found to be the best condi-tion, while ambient temperature with plastic bag-cover pot was possible in rural area for development of rice liquor productivity. However, the level of added wa-ter during fermentation and period of fermentation should be examined.

Sustainable agriculture must face the challenge of suffi-cient productivity to feed and clothe up to 10 billion people this century. As a re-sult, strictly organic methods, while environmentally welcome, can be no more than a partial solution because more land is needed than is available. However, recent development in a range of biotechnologies may provide safer environmen-tal protection together with improving yields. For example, plant growth-promoting (PGP) microorganisms in Vietnam have been shown in field studies to offer reduced needs for seed, chemical fertilisers, pesticides, water and harvest yield losses. Interestingly, one PGP inoculant called BioGro was designed using validation of microbial strains from farmers’ results; but these very same species are now being characterised in laboratories world-wide as PGP strains. Their la-boratory analysis has shown similar traits as observed by farmers, such as ex-tended root structure, nutrient mobilisation, biocontrol for pathogens and insecti-cidal activity. Despite less nutrient and pesticide needs and thus reduced envi-ronmental impacts, agrochemicals will still be needed for sufficient productivity. Research on tools for environmental risk management by farmers such as immu-nological ELISA analysis can also contribute here. Rapid 5-minute tests for moni-toring both food and environment for pesticides can provide better stewardship of such chemicals, helping to ensure a ‘greener future’.

Upland fields in Bohol of the Philippines are mostly located on areas with high slopes resulting in soil erosion. Although coconut husk has been applied as buffer strips for eliminating soil erosion, attention has been paid to the loss of nitrogen and phosphorus components not only discharged from synthetic fertilizer applied in upland fields but also those released from coconut husk. The leached nutrients associated with surface runoff and percolation water may cause pollution downstream. Thus, efficient utilization of the nutrient components from coconut husk is necessary from a view point of conservation agriculture in Bohol, Philippines. This study sought to find out the amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus in coconut husk, to quantify the amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus released from coconut husk during the pretreatment by retting process and to observe the optimum period of releasing nutrients from coconut husk. Retting of coconut husk were carried out for 140 days and small amounts of ret liquor was sampled at certain days of interval for nitrogen and phosphorus analyses. Based on the experimental results, it was observed that releasing nutrients from coconut husk rapidly increased from the starting day up to ten days of retting. Even after ten days, nutrient components released from coconut husk tended to increase gradually. It was also proven that about 87% of its phosphorus and 10% of its total nitrogen was released from the coconut husk. Therefore, it was concluded that coconut husk has a high tendency to release nutrients during the retting process, particularly for phosphorus component that can be a source for bio-fertilizer.

This study was conducted to determine the effects of bee pollinators (A. mellifera and T. biroi) on the productivity of sola-naceous crops. Two observation sites were selected for conducting this study. One was intended for the A. mellifera and other site for T. biroi. A randomized complete block design (RCBD) was laid out with four blocks and three replicates. Solanaceous crops used in the study were egg-plant, tomato and sweet pepper. Of the three solanaceous crops, analysis of vari-ance showed that A. mellifera had a highly significant effect at 1% level of significance on the percent pollinated flowers of eggplant. However, both bee pollinators had shown the same significant effects on sweet pepper and toma-to. Furthermore, this study revealed that both A. mellifera and T. biroi are very efficient pollinators of eggplant crop. Eggplant is the best sola-naceous crop with highest pollination efficiency to A. mellifera and T. biroi.

Ratanakiri and Stung treng provinces are located in north-east of Cambodia. There are riches of natural landscape which is abundant with many rice fields, lakes, waterfalls, rivers as well as vast areas of forest. This re-search was focused on relative importance of activities related to farming and nat-ural resources collection in terms of revenue and occupation at the household level and the way people benefit from communities and natural resource. 120 samples were selected for household survey. Stratified random sampling was used to interview rich, medium and poor households. Other primary data collec-tion methods including questionnaire survey, observation; key informant inter-views were also implemented. This study showed that rice farming and shifting farm (Chamkar) are the main sources of food consumption and supplementary income for their living in the four villages. But non-timber forest product (NTFPs) collection and wildlife poaching are the main sources of income for the rural live-lihoods in remote village in the forest. Local communities in the village studied preferred to poach the wildlife by dog hunting and crossbow and collecting malva nut tree by cutting down in average 10 malva nut tree per household in year round. However, livestock production was the other livelihood activities because local communities can raise chicken, duck, pig, cow and buffalo for selling, household consumption, agricultural activities and spirit Areak (Kavet people). The income that came from natural resource was high but this trend was not sustainable for the future. The natural resource is decreased day by day due to the illegal activi-ties, the local communities do not know how to harvest or collect in the sustaina-ble way. By the way, improvement of agriculture sector in the targeted area is the good way to improve their livelihood and avoid the negative affected to the natu-ral resources.

This paper dealt with the experiment on “Using sun-dried Sesbania sesban leaves with petioles in concentrated feed on growth rate of quail”. It took 42 days to completely undertake the trial to evaluate a) quail’s growth rate (daily live body weight gain and weekly live body weight), b) feed intake (FI), c) feed conversion ratio (FCR), and d) economic efficiency (EE). S. sesban leaves mixed petioles being completely sun-dried and finely ground contains 27.62% crude protein, 19.28% crude fiber in 89.13% dry matter basic. The foliage meal with different level of 0%, 5%, 10%, and 15% was concentrated with a basic diet of maize, dried fish, rice bran and soybean (T0, T1, T2, and T3). Two hundred forty 5-day-old quails were used and then fed with each treatment diet consisting of 27% and alternatively 24% crude protein for the first and the second stages, respectively. Total expense, income, daily feed intake, and weekly body weight were recorded. The result indicated that there were differences (P<0.05) of the daily body live weight gain (T0 = 3.94 g, T1 = 3.89 g, T2 = 3.64 g, and T3 = 3.31 g); of the finishing live body weight of quails between all treatments (T0 = 187.2 g, T1 = 184.8 g, T2 = 174.0g and T3 = 160.8 g); and of FCR (T0 = 2.69, T1 = 2.72, T2 = 2.92, and T3 = 3.24). However, there were no significances of FI in which each treatment quail took in 11-12 grams of the feed per day, and of EE in which all treatment diets provided profit around 10-13 cents as expense on the quail product was one dollar. In sum, the inclusion of S. sesban foliage meal to a maximum of 5% is recommended for quail rising.

The activity of serine and acid protease, amylase and li-pase from a 3-day-old whole-body frog, the gastrointestinal tract of a 10-day-old frog, and the stomach, intestine and pancreas of a 45-day-old and a 60-day-old frog (Rana rugulosa Wiegmann) were determined. The results showed that the medium-age frog (45 days) appeared to have higher activity of serine protease and lipase than the old frog (60 days) and tadpoles (3 and 10 days), while the old frog had the highest activity of acid protease. The activity of serine and acid protease from the four ages of frogs had the high activity at pH 8-12 and 3 respectively, while the activity of both amylase and lipase were highest at pH 7. The activity of all kinds of enzymes were shown to have the highest ac-tivity in the pancreas while the activity of acid protease was found to have the highest activity in the stomach. These results will be used as the basis for suitable feed formulation and feedstuffs for different sizes of common lowland frogs so that optimum nutritional value and cost-effectiveness can be achieved.

This article describes the results of the survey on mush-rooms in Nakhon Phanom province Thailand and Kwaeng Kam Muan Laos done from April to November 2010. It was found that there were 13 varieties in Na-khon Phanom and 10 varieties in Kwaeng Kam Muan. The 13 varieties in Nakhon Phanom were College of Agriculture and Technology NPU 1 variety, Amphoe Tha U Ten 4 varieties, Kalasin province 1 variety, Amphoe Pla Pak 2 varieties, Tum-bon Wangtamua Amphoe Muang 4 varieties and Amphoe Renunakhon 1 variety. In Kwaeng Kam Muan, Laos there were 10 varieties: 2 varieties in Muang Hin Boon, 2 varieties in Muang Tha Khaek, 3 varieties in Muang Yomarat, 1 variety in Muang Mahachai and 2 varieties in Muang Nagai. Each variety was different re-garding cap, gills, scales, stalk, color, and size. The caps of these varieties were 4.0 - 14.5 cm in diameter. The caps of some varieties were thick while those of other varieties were thin. The number of gills was about 85-730, and the length of gills was 2.0 - 10.0 cm. The young gills were creamy white in color but the old gills were dark brown. The weight of dry mushroom was 2.0 - 15.0 g. The weight of wet one was 5.0 - 35.0 g. Scales on caps of mushrooms were different in cold season (October - November) and rainy season (April - July). In cold season skin of caps was scabbed and scattered but in rainy season the skin was smooth. Some stalks were short and others were long. Some varieties had short stalks. Average was 1.0 - 2.0 cm. Some varieties had long stalks. Average was 3.0 - 3.5 cm. The colors of caps were mainly brown, but some caps were white-brown and other caps were yellow-brown. When a mushroom is small, it was young about 1 day but when it grew to big size, it was about 2 or 3 days after primordial of mush-room. So Thailand or Laos varieties were similar, also. It meant that it could be preventive against cancer if you eat it always.

With an increasing population and governmental land-use restriction, shortened fallow periods of some traditional farming systems have contributed to the reduction of agricultural production in the uplands of Lao P.D.R. In response, systems which integrate trees, crops, and/or animals, such as agro forestry have been applied. However, the promotion of agroforestry as an al-ternative choice for upland farmers has become very challenging as a result of long-term economic incentives. The objectives of this study were to identify agro-forestry systems employed, cost and returns, and the satisfaction of farmers, aiming to promote more benefits of agroforestry. Information described in this paper came from a survey of 80 agroforestry farms under a project support in nine villages of two northern districts. The results implied that three main agro forestry systems, based on nature components, have been employed. 81 percent of farmers employed Agrisilviculture, where trees and crops were combined in the same parcel. 14 percent applied Agrosilvopastoral (trees, crops, and pas-ture/animals), followed by 5 percent who applied Silvopastoral (trees and pas-ture/animals). In terms of production cost, initial investment in Agrisilviculture cost on average US$ 575 ha^-1; while Agrosilvopastoral farmers spent around US$ 795 ha^-1 and Silvopastural farmers, an estimated US$ 282 ha^-1. After three-years of establishment, most farmers achieved success meeting their food sufficiency needs and obtained additional income from extra production, with average returns from each system about US$ 186 ha^-1, US$ 632 ha^-1, and US$ 104 ha^-1 respectively. With biological and economic advantages produced by natural components in each system, most of farmers were similarly satisfied. Although the systems could not provide im-mediate-profitable returns, they were able to sustain food production and were profitable for a long-term use. A particular attention and continual technical sup-port from relevant agencies are still required to enhance application of agroforest-ry.

Blue swimmer crab plays a significant role for the people living around the coastal zone which provides foods, income for liveli-hood. Unsustainable use of fishery resources and lack of food security by human activities and environment factors drove the degradation of these species. So, the study aimed to: identify the kind of fishing gears and the way of fishing blue swimmer crab, identify the average yield of blue swimmer crab, and show the blue swimmer crab market. The study selected 2 different Community Fisheries (CFi) from 2 communes and 14 fishermen from Keb Thmey Fisheries Communi-ty and 25 fishermen from Chang Hoan CFi, 10 middlemen, 2 chief communities from each Fisheries Communities were interviewed. The simple yields, moreover, were recorded in Chang Hoan CFi every morning and Keb Thmey CFi in the even-ing for 4 months. The results showed that crab trap and trawling have been used in both areas for catching blue swimmer crab, but trawling is not commonly used. In Keb Thmey CFi, the average yields per day of blue swimmer crabs were caught by crab trap: 15.77 kg/boat in March, 16.45 kg/boat in April, 13.93 kg/boat in May, and 8.09 kg/boat in June. On the other hand, trawling was used to collect blue swimmer crab in Chang Hoan CFi; in average were 1.01 kg/boat in March, 1.09 kg/boat in April, and 0.89 kg/boat in May. Whereas the yield from the crab traps were 6.72 kg/boat in March, 5.05 kg/boat in April, 5.05 kg/boat in May and 4.44 kg/boat in June. Usually, blue swimmer crabs were classified into 3 classes. The first and second classes were purchased by middlemen who delivered to the crab strip shop, retailer and Kampot and Vealrihn markets. The third class was sold to the crab peelers. In conclusion, crab trap is commonly used for catching crab all year round. The variation of total is according to time, weather, place and the number of fishing gears. The average catch in March and April is more than that in May and June.

This study aimed to identify and evaluate appropriate introduced and improved sloping upland rice cultivars for the northern region of Lao PDR (Bokeo, Houphanh, Luangnamtha, Luangprabang, Oudomxai, Phongsaly, Sayabuly, and Xiengkhuang). The study was designed to detect genotype by environment for seven cultivars: 1) Makhinsoung, 2) Nok, 3) Non, 4) Laboun, 5) IR55423-1, 6) B6144F-MR-6 and 7) IR60080-46A in the farmer’s field with farmer practices and farmer’s preferences analysis. The results showed that both introduced and improved rice varieties consistently produced higher grain yield compared to local varieties, from 157 to 381 kg/ha over years that the experiments were conducted. Local varieties yielded an average of 1700 kg/ha. Most of the varieties were suitable for Oudomxai, Sayabuly and Xiengkhuang provinces. Some varieties were specifically appropriate for some provinces: Non (Bokeo), IR60080-46A (Houaphanh and Luangnamtha). Yield data of all tested varieties were generally significantly different from that of local variety. However, grain yield differences of entries in Luangprabang and Phongsaly were not significant, but almost all the entries cultivars produced more grain than local checks.

In recent years, health issues are a major concern for consumers. Northern Thai farmers are seeking alternative crops with high nutri-tional value and market potential. Recent studies show that purple rice (or Thai black rice) is rich in nutrients, such as gamma-oryzanol and natural antioxidants, and therefore, could be potential crop. The main purpose of this study is to inves-tigate market structure and market conduct of purple rice in northern Thailand. Porter’s five forces analysis was used to evaluate the competitiveness and relative attractiveness of growing purple rice. The surveying method was used to study market conduct. The result from the estimated Concentration Ratio indicated that market structure of purple rice differ in all three provinces. It was also found that the five competitive forces influence the collectors the most and the farmers the least. Even though the competitive forces aren’t very high, survey data indicates that the purple rice market hasn’t been found attractive by farmers, collectors or retailers.This study concludes that despite purple rice being a high-nutrient prod-uct, its market is still very small in northern Thailand. However, purple rice as a serious commercial crop is still not that at-tractive to the farmers.

Recently, foreign investment has grown significantly in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) hence its macro-economic impact has been the subject of numerous research studies. However, there is a lack of stud-ies assessing the micro-economic impact of foreign investment in the rural areas of GMS countries. This paper (a) assesses the change in rural non-farm wage employment as a result of foreign investment and its socio-economic impact on rural people in Laos, (b) highlights the participation of women in a plantation pro-ject initiated by a Japanese company, and (c) analyze the effect of foreign invest-ment on people’s mobility patterns, the change on their interactions at local level and the risks for rural development. Data has been collected using purposive sampling methods with a total of 80 respondents from two villages and were se-lected randomly at a household survey in 2009. The respondents comprised 50% of men and also 50% of women in each village. Questionnaire survey, focus-group discussion and field observation were conducted. The results showed a significant change of income for rural people employed by the project, particular-ly for women. Improved women’s participation had provided opportunities for their empowerment and changed their mobility patterns. This, in turn, facilitated women’s networking with people with diverse status and experiences outside their village. This resulted in a slight change in women’s active participation in community meetings at the local level as well as their relations with men, chal-lenging existing socio-cultural norms. It was concluded that foreign investment can contribute to rural development by creating a non-farm rural employment op-portunities. However, it is also cautious to become excessively dependent on for-eign investment for rural employment opportunities since foreign investment have a high risk of changing condition in the global market.

‘Farmer organization’ is a new concept for Cambodian people, and capacities to effectively manage farmer organizations are limited. Thus, a study was conducted with two objectives, (1) to explore aspects of man-agement and leadership capacities of management committees, and (2) to look in-to the management processes for farmer organizations. After finishing an inter-view with all stakeholders, the results showed that educational level of the man-agement committee is so low, with 64.50% finishing primary school and only 1.4% university. Even though they have low education, among 95.1% of the management committees had the ability to write their small project proposals to be submitted to supporting non-government organizations or other donors for both financial and technical support. After their assessment, each farmer organi-zation received 1-3 grants for implementing their own economic initiatives, 62% of the management committees and the members interviewed were provided with technical trainings. All farmer organizations have all the necessary characteristics such as logo, organizational chart, by-laws, recording tools and they conducted meetings regularly. Furthermore, they maintain good relationships with all stake-holders and also received official recognitions from the local authorities. Overall, we can say that the management capacity of the committees have improved even though they still need further support from outsiders in terms of capacity building, working capital, etc. so as to make sure they continue to function well to serve the interest of the members in the long run.

Banteay Meanchey Province is located in the northwest of Cambodia with agricultural, tourism, and handicraft economic sectors. The main agriculture products were crops (rice, cassava and banana) and livestock (cattle, buffalo, pigs and poultry when water is available). In between 750-1,500 families raised livestock for cash income, field operation, transportation and oth-er uses. In the last few years, the number of livestock heads significantly de-creased because of the introduction of hand tractors, lack of feed, and diseases. The observation of such decreases led to a study focused on income flow through different farming systems, linkages between crop and livestock produc-tion and analyzing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and the huge challenges in the region. Appropriate samples were used according to spatial/grid-cell meth-od from Googleearth. GPS was used to identify the locations based on the grid-cell data. Many tools such as Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA and Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA), were included. Local authorities, relevant NGOs such as Economic and Social Relaunch of Northwest Provinces in Cambodia (ECOSORN) and Agricultural Development Denmark Asia (ADDA), agricultural extension workers and farmers were involved. The results revealed that there were two kinds of farming systems - with livestock and without livestock. It indicated that farming with livestock could produce much more income than without livestock because farmers could sell both crop and livestock production to the market. Moreover, livestock could be fed easily with crop residues. In most of the cases, livestock’s manure could also be used to fertilize fields. Although livestock pro-duction was economically important for farmers, the shortage of water and feed throughout the year and the existence of diseases discouraged farmers from rais-ing livestock in great numbers even if there was intervention from NGOs, local authorities, or veterinarians. Such conditions led most of the farmers to change to the use of hand tractors as a means of transportation and field work.

The diffusive gradient in thin films (DGT) technique is an in situ passive sampling method that is designed to accumulate labile metal species in environmental systems. DGTs were applied for the determination of time integrated concentrations of low level dissolved metals in waters in areas of ecological concern. The data revealed heavy metal contamination of waters and tracked the contamination to the source. A comparison of DGT-derived water concentrations with water concentrations measured from grab samples highlighted the effectiveness of passive water samplers for detecting ultra-trace levels of met-als. Comparing active and passive sampling techniques showed that both methods produce similar results when used simultaneously at the same sites. The use of DGT technique along with traditional methods offers an extra cost effective method of independent evaluation of environmental sites as well as more sensi-tive and inexpensive way of obtaining additional information about sites which would be very hard to obtain using active sampling techniques.

A participatory research approach has been conceptually proposed as an effective method for introducting knowledge-intensive technologies. This approach was adopted for the promotion of Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) in the chili production system in Thailand. However, some farmers still use conventional practices that often result in an overuse of chemicals. This study projected the impact of participation and improved knowledge of farmers, which can encourage the program adoption. Other conventional factors such as farming characteristics were also considered. Research was carried out involving 179 chili farmers both participants and non-participants in the GAP program located in the Northeastern part of Thailand. A treatment effect model was used in the identification of factors affecting the program adoption. Results showed a significant effect on program participation and farmer’s knowledge that was the precursor of adoption. Farmers’ experience in chili production significantly affected adoption. Age was a negative determinant of adoption. The conclusion can be drawn that adoption of knowledge-intensive technologies such as GAP needs an effective approach such as the participatory research program, which can improve farmers’ knowledge and encourage them to adopt innovative technologies. This approach allows farmers to learn from the experience of other farmers.

In plants, less water causes photosynthesis reduction whereas excessive water reduces the soil nutrients. These effects induce stunted plant growth. The aim of this work was to study the changes in leaf chlorophyll content and some soil characteristics of the native common bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon L.) as influenced by irrigation treatments. Two ex-periments, open bottom 4 x 1 m concrete blocks and closed bottom pots were set up during the dry season from January to May 2011 at the Horticultural Section, Faculty of Agriculture, Khon Kaen University. The experimental designs were randomized complete block design (RCBD) with 4 daily irrigation levels; 0.50 evaporation pan (0.50E_pan), 0.75E_pan, 1.00E_pan (control) and 1.25E_pan. The results showed that 1.25E_pan irrigation in open bottom concrete blocks significantly increased leaching of essential soil nutrients and decreased leaf chlorophyll content. The 0.50E_pan irrigation treatment in pot experiment which was meant to resemble drought conditions had the low-est values in leaf chlorophyll content for the first two months. However, there were no differences in leaf chlorophyll content in all the treatments for the last two months. Moreover, the soil nutrients in all the treatments were not leached out in the closed bottom pot experiment. Therefore, the optimum watering amount should be taken into consideration.

The application of cattle manure in farmlands was considered as a proper treatment from a viewpoint of organic agriculture. However, pathogenic bacteria known as E. coli in immature fermented manure happen to spread out from farmlands. So, the objective of this study is to investigate E. coli efflux under different application methods of cattle manure. Slope modeling experiment was conducted under an artificial rainfall simulator. Slope plots were filled with soil then fresh cow dung and 2 weeks fermented manures were applied into the plots. Cow dung and manure were applied with 2 application methods: the broadcasting method and the incorporating method. Based on the experimental results, it was found that E. coli efflux increased with soil loss through surface runoff. Moreover, it showed that the amounts of E. coli efflux were higher than that of input in either plot broadcasted or incorporated with cow dung. In addition, there were tendencies that E. coli had been transported by percolation although it was smaller in number than that by surface runoff.

It is widely known that nitrate pollution of river water and groundwater in agricultural regions has become severe in Japan and in other agricultural countries around the world. On the other hand, in the Tokachi River Watershed, where large-scale upland field cultivation with dairy farming is the main form of agriculture, few surveys and little research have addressed the impact of agriculture on water quality in the area. This study examined the relationship between the nitrogen concentration in river water at normal water level and the proportion of cropland in the Tokachi River Watershed with taking notice of both maintaining sustainable agriculture and conserving water quality environment. At 37 locations on the Tokachi River main stream and its tributaries (their downstream ends), the NO₃-N concentration in river water and the proportion of cropland in the watersheds were surveyed for three years. Nitrate nitrogen as a percent of total nitrogen in river water ranged from 84% to 91%. The maximum T-N in water from the tributaries was approx. 8.8 mg/L. There was a correlation (significance of 1%) between the NO₃-N concentration in river water and the proportion of cropland in the watersheds. The correlation coefficients ranged from 0.80** to 0.95** in the water from the main stream. It was confirmed that the impact factor, or the slope of the regression curve that represents the relationship between the two, ranged from 0.037 to 0.075, which was greater than the values reported for various other locations in Hokkaido. Future studies on conserving the water environment by reducing the nitrogen loading into the river system while maintaining the cropland in the Tokachi River Watershed in favorable condition will need to explore the feasibility of land use assessment methods based on the new viewpoint.

BioClean is the brand name of a liquid bioproduct, which had been produced by using various types of flowers. Liquid biofertilizers had been produced by using local available materials such as vegetables, fruits, herbaceous crops, etc. and molasses as substrate, especially added with 18 species of zymogenic synthetic microorganisms. This generation of bioclean products and liquid biofertilizers are aimed to serve to the environmental cleaning sector and the liquid biofertilizers sector for planting trees in the temples and green areas near the region of Khon Kaen University. The board of 18 zymogenic synthetic microorganisms was transferred from the original microorganisms seeding of previous research products of liquid biofertilizer, such as kku-1 and/or liquid biofertilizer biotech-1. The product composition of bioclean and liquid biofertilizers were investigated by standard methods for standard products, and the quality of products was determined by field testing with crops such as water convolvulus; flowers, and water quality treatment for fish living before servicing products to the temples for natural environment. The services project of both products were designed to treat the two temples of Wat Adulkaewmordee and Wat Nonmuang near the region of Khon Kaen University on the event of “Temples big cleaning day 2011” for natural environment treatments by utilizing bioclean products at 1:2000 (0.05%) for cleaning and wastewater treatment, and utilizing liquid biofertilizer products at 1:500 for planted trees and green areas. Furthermore, liquid biofertilizer products had been utilized to plant trees along the main road at Khon Kaen University. The evaluation results of satisfactory services rating of projects of bioclean and liquid biofertilizers to the both temples and green areas had satisfactory results as 4.26 average score value or 85.3%, evaluated by the expert board of ten committees’s considerations.