Chapter 7 Conclusion and Recommendation CHAPTER 7 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 7.1 Conclusion The GOT stipulated the direction to delegate power to local governance under the new Constitution enacted in 1997 and launched effort for decentralization. Furthermore, the GOT declared to embrace participatory development approach at the ninth NSEDP and has already proceeded with improvement of administrative system, which would support to deal with regional issues through community participation as well as decentralization on resources management. In line with such policy, introduction of CEO Governor has already started, and presently CEO Governors have been placed in the whole 76 prefectures. Under these circumstances, the Study commenced to formulate an agricultural development master plan, with the participation of the communities to increase incomes of small-scale farmers who are suffering from drought and/or flood damages. The Study also includes technology transfer to the personnel in RID TAO and other relevant organizations on the subjects of participatory planning and surveying methods. Through the pilot project implementation, the Study verified these methods with the aims to enhance institutional capabilities of such organizations. The study commenced in October 2004 and was completed after 2 years and 4 months. The Study was carried out mainly by the Thai side, with support from the Study Team. In order to formulate the Draft Master Plan (DMP) in the Study, RRA survey, PCM workshops at 16 Tambons, discussions at both 4 sub-basins and a whole basin were carried out with participation of all stakeholders. In the process of clearing many problems and solutions in the Study Area applying participatory development methods throughout the implementation of the study, all stakeholders have deeply understood the necessity of participatory development. Especially, many precious lessons for future planning have obtained in the Study by proposing detail hypothesis to materialize participatory development, and by verifying the institutions to support this hypothesis. The challenges to achieve the goal and development approaches to overcome the challenges in the Study Area are shown as below as follows. These ideas are commonly understood and shared by all stakeholders participated in the Study. Development Goal Agricultural incomes meet its cost. 4 Challenges 1. Cost of agricultural inputs should be lowered, 2. Productivities should be raised, 3. Farm gate prices for markets should be raised, and 4. Damages on products should be lessened. 8 Approaches 1. Water Resources 5. Farm Inputs 2. Flood 6. Pest and Disease 3. Production System 7. Credit 4. Soil 8. Marketing System 1-183 Final Report ~Master Plan~ On the other hand, RRA survey and PCM workshops were carried out in the pilot project to identify problems to be solved. In order to solve the problems, 3 approaches namely implementation of the irrigation, strengthening of the existing farmer’s organizations and strengthening of the agricultural extension services had been formulated, and project components were implemented accordingly. As a result, the projects such as compost making, artificial breeding, revolving fund, transferring of irrigation facilities to TAO, cost sharing and study tour, etc. selected by the stakeholders themselves were realized by through their own efforts. As intended at the beginning of the Study, many relevant agencies have participated in the formulation of the master plan as well as implementation of the pilot projects at the provincial, district and Tambon levels. Major stakeholders in the provincial and/or district levels were MOAC, RID and DOAE, and others including LDD, DOLs, DOCP and CDD. Those agencies consist as major part of the TSG. At the Tambon level, TAO and TTC were the main stakeholders and participated in several meetings and training courses for them to be able to implement the pilot project smoothly and to support the farmers. At the village level, the WUG was established in each village and received different types of technical supports. The WUG was the key stakeholder in the village to organize farmers and coordinate all activities. Since communication is regarded as essential for institutional strengthening, frequent workshops, meetings and discussions and study tours were programmed during the execution of pilot project to maximize communication among the stakeholders. Although the stakeholders had to spend a lot of their time for the project, however, such opportunities in participatory manners have contributed largely in strengthening institutional ties. Community people participated in the workshops requested the implementation of projects they wanted as shopping lists to the JICA Study Team, RID and other related agencies. People were much more likely to be dependent on development aid lead by the Government. However, projects selected by people themselves should be able to be implemented by the people themselves in cooperation with the Government agencies. As a good example, in the compost making implemented in the pilot project, the compost making group obtained the know-how through the study tour, and they have established the system to make compost by trial and error with support from the WUG and the TAO. Presently, the TAO is promoting the compost as One-Tambon-One-Product (OTOP). As mentioned above, the Study has achieved significant results in presenting precious opportunities for communities to show their initiative in formulating their development with support of agencies staff during pilot project. The master plan formulated in this report has been prepared with the concept that people themselves are main actors in the development. Based on the needs of people, the master plan reflects feedback from the results of the implementation of pilot projects. The plan includes the plans for the 1-184 Chapter 7 Conclusion and Recommendation construction of bank protection, medium dams, etc. which classified as public works and are not able to be implemented by community themselves. Also, the plan refers to issues as well as structural plan was considered for formulating plans and project implementation. Accordingly, Implementation of the projects formulated in the master plan are considered to contribute to the alleviation of the flood and/or drought damages as well as securing and improving peoples livelihood in the Study Area with a new framework of agricultural development. 7.2 Recommendation (1) Justification of the process of participatory development planning By the Study, it has been cleared that the participatory development approach is able to reflect the people’s needs and effective for formulating the master plan to make it more realistic than the top-down approach. Based on such experience, the process of participatory development planning is recommended to be introduced for formulating a watershed master plan in the future. On the other hand, some literature reviews and lessons learned have been noted. Reflecting on these experiences, further process of participatory development planning is recommended as follows. In the project area, the participatory approach is not exactly applied in the planning process although it basically flows upward from villages to Tambons, districts and provinces. In general, at first the representatives such as the village chief submit a list of project proposals to the Tambon where those proposals are prioritized, and then the results are sent to the upper levels for the same actions. The bottom, the people and villages, are rarely involved in deciding which proposals are materialized. It is therefore recommended that the development planning and implementation process be institutionalized, which stipulates that the project plans be made with the participation of people, and those be given the highest priority for implementation. This would make the officers aware how important the project planning is, and eventually be motivated in participating in the planning with the people. In implementing projects in the future in other areas, the participatory development planning methods applied in the pilot project will be very useful as a guideline and should be utilized as much as possible. Member of TSG/TAO with the background of social development, with motivation and interest in village survey should be a facilitator to carry out the participatory planning method. (2) TSG’s aggressively use and strengthening its function further It is necessary for formulating rural development plans to consider both top-down approach and bottom-up approach. However, it is not clear which agency shall act as coordinating body among the various related agencies at present. There are various requests for the development plans including top-down by central or provincial levels, bottom-up from villages or TAO levels, and also requests in combined approach. Presently, selection of projects is usually made by the CEO Governor without 1-185 Final Report ~Master Plan~ sound evaluation in terms of the development direction. It is proposed, therefore, that the TSG shall be the coordinator and in charge of screening the plans before handing it over to the CEO Governor’s judgment. And also RID, DOA, DOAE, etc. have tendency to execute their projects by vertical administrative structure individually. In order to solve these problems, TSG has been established in the Study as a coordinator to act horizontally, which is the first attempt in Thailand. TSG members consist of province and district level to support
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