Studies on the Conventional Farm Tools and the Evolution of Farming Systems in Southeast Asia.

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Conventional from tools and farming systems have been formed upon their nationalities. With this perception field studies were conducted in Thailand to investigate farm tools and their regional variations,manufacturing technologies and marketing systems, Also conventional farm tools were examined in relation to farming operations and managements from various angles including social economy and history. An international seminar was held to have a discussion among the investigators and interested researchers to exchange informations and ideas on the appropriate technology and its soft transfer. Traditional from tools used in Thailand, such as weeding knives and sickles are made by blacksmiths. Therer are four core areas where blacksmith are prevalent, namely Phrae, Lampang, Ayuthaya and Nokhon Rachasima. In recent years the technological progress in production processes have occurred in this field. Some traditional blacksmiths evolved from cottage industry into handicraft type manufactur … More ing. There are two channels for marketing products. One is traditional type hawkers, the other is modern type merchant who handles many products.A comparative study on the differences of the farm implements and operations depending upon the regions have been made to find factors related to the exisitence of the individual farming systems. Morphological and engineering characteristics of traditional plows were measured to stored as data base for designing. Based upon these date a new method of plow designing was introduced using computer aided design system. The system has been used successfully to various plow design applications as a joint research project with Kasetsart University.One of the noted characteristics of the preasent farming systems in Thailand has been high degres of regional variations between the central plain, the northern and the notheastern Thailnd. The influence of the traditional technologies, natural and socio-economical situations upon the development of new technologies will be studied further in future. Less