Producers across Thailand’s minor crop sectors—including sugar cane, herbs, spices, pineapple, coconut, and soybeans—face persistent soil-related challenges. Declining soil fertility, limited understanding of nutrient requirements, and a need to comply with Fairtrade GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) standards have made soil management a critical area of intervention.

The Soil Management Workshop was designed and planned together by NAPP and Thai SPOs to tackle the farm problems that farmers are facing. The training aims to improve knowledge of growers on soil nutrients, beneficial microorganism, and required nutrients that meet crop demand. Producers will learn to analyze the soil nutrients of their soil and assess the nutrient amount crop need. The goal of this project is to improve soil management knowledge of producers and help them in compliance with Fairtrade standard requirement.

This needs-driven collaboration ensures the program responds directly to on-ground challenges while strengthening producers’ capacity to adopt sustainable and climate-resilient agricultural practices.

Participating Producer Organizations

A total of 13 members from seven participating Producer Organizations took part in the Soil Management Workshop. These SPOs represented diverse crop sectors from across Thailand, including Green Net Cooperative, Nong Luang Muang Khai Community Enterprise, Nakornphet Fairtrade Sugar Cane Group, Sisaket Fairtrade Farmer Group, Organic Fairtrade Sisaket Community Enterprise, Organic For Life Sisaket, and the Fairtrade Pineapple Growers’ Group. Their active participation ensured that the learnings from the workshop would be transferred widely within their communities and producer networks.

Over three days, producers engaged in a skill-building curriculum designed to strengthen soil-health practices and environmental compliance. Key modules included:

• GAP-aligned standards on environmental management, water protection, biodiversity, and climate change mitigation
• Soil nutrient analysis and soil sampling techniques
• Sustainable fertilizer management and integrated pest management
• Carbon storage and biochar production for long-term soil recovery
• Understanding living soil ecosystems and the role of microorganisms

A field visit to a commercial aromatic farm provided practical exposure to biochar production techniques, offering participants inspiration to adapt these methods to their own contexts.

Immediate Impact

The workshop delivered measurable benefits to SPOs and producers:

1. Increased knowledge of GAP-related compliance in soil and organic waste management.
2. Improved capacity to analyze soil nutrients and recommend appropriate fertilizer application.
3. New skills in carbon capture and biochar production, applicable to climate-resilient farming.
4. Enhanced training confidence among SPO representatives, strengthening farmer-to-farmer knowledge transfer.
5. Insights from group discussions that will shape Fairtrade NAPP’s 2026 support programs.

“I gained deeper understanding of sustainable agriculture concepts. The field visit inspired new ideas, especially improvements in our biochar production process.”

Krongthong Pimsor – Green Net Cooperative

Next Step

Based on the outcomes of the workshop and the collaborative discussions with SPOs, NAPP has outlined key next steps to ensure sustained progress. The Country Manager will share the training manual with all participants, enabling them to apply the content in their farmer-level trainings and extend the impact to their wider communities.

 In addition, Fairtrade NAPP will design the supporting programs for 2026, reflecting the challenges, insights, and priorities raised during group discussions and consultations with SPOs. These forward-looking actions will strengthen long-term capacity development, reinforce producers’ ability to meet Fairtrade Standards, and enhance soil health and climate resilience across participating producer groups.