During 2017-2018, Kasetsart University Foundation supported farmer leader networks to establish 13 soil clinics in 4 provinces of rice production. Thai farmers previously used the traditional one-size-fits-all method of blanket fertilizer application recommendations. The TFT-Smart-Farming for small-holder farmers has been developed and adapted from the concepts of precision agriculture since 1997, and can be considered as the first precision agriculture research work in Thailand. The conceptual approach of both simplifying the complex technology and empowering the farmers to learn the technology and to become self-reliant has been a distinctive, creative part of the TFT.The simplified technology includes the process of soil analysis using soil test kits, employing soil series maps at the sub-district level, and developing a smart phone app for Tailor-made Fertilizer recommendations. For building capacity of farmer leaders, the Smart problem identification technique based on self-reliance was developed to encourage and enhance continuous improvement of the actual crop production technology.

The resulting precise fertilizer applications can result in more efficient and economic use of plant nutrients and yield increases resulting, in turn, with a mitigation of pollution caused by excess fertilizer application. Improved production,healthier products, increased capacity and health of farmers are, thus, achievable goals for better livelihoods of farmers. The results obtained during the past four years of 16 soil clinic establishment in 3 provinces using TFT revealed that chemical fertilizer use in rice production has dramatically decreased 40% – 51%while the crop yield increased 14% – 17% compared with the current practice of farmers.To improve access and adoption of TFT, we have encouraged farmers to establish Soil Clinics in their communities since 2013 and trained farmer leaders to analyze soil samples for farmers, provide the precise fertilizer recommendations and have fertilizer materials for sale at competitive prices. Consequently, the Soil Clinics have helped to solve three problems, 1) fake, low-quality fertilizers, 2)excessively high fertilizer prices, and 3) incorrect fertilizer-use.As of May 2019, farmer leaders have established a total of 70 Soil Clinics in 20provinces of Thailand with technical support from our working groups and with financial support from the government and private sectors.

In addition, DOAE has been supporting 882 Soil Clinics in every district throughout the country since 2015. We expect that the number of Soil Clinics will increase throughout the nation-wide network, so that chemical fertilizer use in Thailand will be reformed.Land holding is a major factor limiting scale of production together with other factors such as access to external inputs, markets and credit services, as well as farmers’ degree of market-orientation. Land shortage is particularly a major challenge for urban farmers in the current study to expand the scale of production and productivity. Land shortage is a major problem constraining dairy development elsewhere in the country, for instance in SNNP state where 100% of both rural and urban farmers interviewed reported land shortage as number one constraint and as reviewed by . Land holding in the highlands of Ethiopia is generally small and comparable to the land holding in the sampled households in the current study. This is in contrast to the larger farm size of 8.5 ha in the lowlands of Ethiopia.The national average agricultural land holding and grazing/fodder production land per household is 2.5 and0.26 ha, respectively . The leverage point to increase scale of production island, particularly for peri-urban and urban systems. It is argued that change in milk production due to herd size explains 60% of the increase, but only 20%from technology change .