8 October 2023
By Pakpitchaya Borvonsin
A young woman returns to her hometown after graduation to start an organic farm in hopes of changing her community’s unsustainable agricultural practices
“What are your plans after graduation?” To many fresh graduates, including me, the answer to this common question can be simple—to pursue a career related to their degree. To be fair, I think this is reasonable as it’s what we dedicate four years of our life to. However, many don’t find answering this question as easy. I have known so many people who realized upon their graduation that they didn’t want to pursue a path related to their field of study. While some decided to go after what they truly wanted, others didn’t.
If that is what you are experiencing, Nun’s story is for you.
She graduated from economics only to return to her hometown and become a farmer.
Instead of staying in Bangkok, Jeeranun Boonkrong or Nun, went back to her hometown in Surin, a province located in the Northeastern part of Thailand, where she started an organic farm of her own called Pangaea Organic Garden and Space.
“I asked myself whether my presence in Bangkok was necessary. I believe whether or not I stayed here, Bangkok would still never change. But by returning to my hometown, I knew I could make a difference; so, I decided to come back,” says Nun.
The name ‘Pangaea’ conveys a positive meaning when translated into Thai and Khmer. ‘Pan’ is pronounced like a Thai word for breed or gene, while ‘gaea’ is pronounced like a Khmer word for good. Together, it’s a combination of two words meaning “good genes,” which aligns with the farm’s purpose to be a space that contributes to genetic resilience in plants, animals as well as humans.
“Pangaea was the term for Earth’s supercontinent before it broke apart into several continents we know today. I think (the term) reflects my farm’s theme as a space that would be home to a wide variety of things, whether it be plants, animals, relatives, siblings, or the community,” explains Nun.
RELATED STORY: ‘Sustainable farming: How to change your community by yourself’
Pangaea Organic Garden and Space is located in “Ban Luang Udom,” a small village in Surin, Thailand. Like many other provinces across Thailand’s Northeastern region, the most common occupation here is farming. In fact, Thai farmers have been struggling with poverty, with over 90% of them being indebted; every year, they are subject to several financial risks like fluctuations in farm produce prices.
Having to deal with these fluctuations and personal debts makes organic farming and accessibility to organic products—which involve higher cost and price—practically impossible for local farmers.
Aiming to make organic vegetables available and affordable for the community, Nun is farming and selling organic produce to locals at a relatively cheap price. This is also made possible by the lower cost involved in selling within the community, as there is no need for complex packaging designs or transportation fees.
Moreover, Nun has been creating extra income opportunities for the community. She buys cow dung from local farmers and uses it to make organic fertilizers. She also organizes workshops where local farmers can join and together make cow dung manure. This also plays a role in promoting more organic farming in the community.
Last but not least, Nun also highlights establishing environmental sustainability as her vision.
“The key of organic farming is that its management is 100% free [from] chemical use. This allows the land to become more biodiverse, the ecosystem constituents develop complex codependency among each other, the soil to become more fertile, leading to a self-sustaining ecosystem,” says Nun.
All in all, through operating her farm, selling vegetables to locals at affordable prices, and encouraging more locals to start organic farming themselves, Nun is also reducing the community demand for buying vegetables from outside, reducing the carbon footprint of transportation, and thus creating a community-based economy that is more economically and environmentally sustainable.
Nun started Pangaea Organic Garden and Space from zero—she learned organic farming through self-research trial and error. Until now, she has been carrying out every step involved in farming on her own, starting from amending soil, making compost, pruning, harvesting, marketing, packaging, to selling.
At the time of writing, the farm covers an area of 3,200 m2—one half is reserved for a pond while the other half is reserved for farming. A wide variety of vegetables can be found here, such as lettuce, tomatoes, kale, and banana, as well as some wild plants.
On a regular day, aside from transplanting seedlings, watering, or harvesting, Nun devotes a great deal of her time to creating content on social media. She believes besides producing organic products, it’s also important to raise awareness regarding the significance and benefits of organic farming both among producers and consumers. She wants to communicate the value of her organic products and how they are better for the environment to the public.
As she explains, “Aside from showing off crops and products, I also create educational content regarding organic farming. I want to create a platform, in which farmers and interested individuals can use as their source of knowledge and freely exchange information. My content sometimes features plant care techniques in an organic garden and content responding to a set of questions I got from my followers.”
Her account has been receiving a lot of attention and interest on all major platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, with over 45,000 followers on the lattermost platform. Many influencers and some fine-dining chefs have become interested in buying her produce and reached out to her via social media. Nun believes that this is achieved through her content, which provides transparency into her production and increases consumer confidence concerning food safety.
If we scroll through Pangaea Organic Garden’s feed on Instagram, we will see a lot of wonderful pictures of organic produce Nun had planted. What we don’t see is the amount of effort and care needed to grow the produce.
In conventional farming, applying fertilizers is as easy as scattering them over the soil. In contrast, organic farming requires a lengthy composting process of up to a month for organic matter to decompose and eventually turn into fertilizer. Even then, to apply it is not as simple as the case of applying synthetic fertilizers.
All in all, organic farming requires more careful strategic planning, manually-intensive labor, and a complicated process; undoubtedly, it comes with higher investment and cost.
There was also a point where Nun felt tired and discouraged during the four years of coming back to her hometown and starting Pangaea Organic Garden and Space.
She states that, “I admit I had felt discouraged at some point. But I think it’s normal for every one of us that at one point, we don’t feel comfortable with what we’re doing, even if it’s something we’re passionate about. When that happens, if I walk out into the garden and see the progress I have made, I will feel better […] I will realize how my determination and effort have actually become ‘something’.”
You can contribute to our planet’s health in your everyday life even through an action you may deem very small. And, certainly, supporting organic produce can be one of those actions.
“If you are in a position where you can consider where your food comes from, please do consider. We might have to pay [for organic food] at a higher price but that will be the price we pay to save the environment, the planet. I hope everyone helps take care of this planet and sustain it for future generations,” says Nun.
Finally, I hope after reading this article, many of you have in one way or another been inspired. Personally, I truly respect her for making such a brave choice—making high investments without having any idea what lay ahead. It made me come to think that sometimes we might realize what we want in life a little later than others but that shouldn’t prevent us from trying for it. Nun’s story proves to us that sometimes a risk is really worth taking. And thus, for all the fresh graduates, who already know their interest has changed and dream of pursuing a path not related to their degree, please consider this story as a shout-out to you and go for your dream!
(Edited by Amanda Tolentino)
Thai farmers call on next government to address their debt crisis. (May 12, 2023). The Nation. https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/general/40027559
Pangaea Organic Garden and Space is a one-woman organic farm that aims to change the ways of unsustainable agriculture in the founder’s local community. Based in Dongkeng village, Surin, Thailand, Pangaea Organic Garden and Space focuses on selling low-cost and organic produce to locals and urban customers while educating audiences online and offline on how to do organic farming. You can reach out to them at https://www.instagram.com/pangaea_organic/
Pakpitchaya Borvonsin or Wan is a fresh graduate from Thailand. She’s passionate about the ocean and determined to devote herself to the field of marine conservation. Currently, she is working as a project assistant for a Japan-Thailand joint research project on aquaculture, from which she is learning a lot about how sustainable aquaculture is necessary for the achievement of SDGs.
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