Charoen Pokphand Foods Public Company Limited (CP Foods) supported a seed fund to support communities around Khao Phraya Doen Thong area Phatthana Nikhom District, Lop Buri Province, for carry on the “Organic Farm of Happiness” project and “Breeding and Larval Rearing of Freshwater Fish Project”.

This program is in a bid to create sustainable food sources for residents, and becoming self-reliance communities, especially during the Covid-19 crisis.

These programs are a pilot model for building sustainable and healthy food source at the community level.

Sutee Smudraprabhud, Assistant Vice President told that the company initiates the happiness in the communities around Khao Phraya Doen Thong area program by supporting the “Organic Farm of Happiness” project ( 2019-2023) and Breeding and Larval Rearing of Freshwater Fish Project” (2020-2023). The both scheme aimed at building food security in the community surrounding Phraya Doen Thong Mountain of Lopburi Province.

CP FOODS shared its expertise in agro-industrial and food business as well as supporting the establishment of a revolving fund to enable the community to operate the project sustainably, especially in the epidemic situation of Covid 19. Both vegetable and fish from the project are a safe food source for the residents. The projects will be a model for further expansion to other communities.

Mr. Prateep Ornsalung, a villager at Khok Salung and project’s key coordinator of “Organic Farm of Happiness” project, explained that there were seven communities joined the first phase of the project. They have witnessed increased income from selling vegetables and reduced expenses from home-grown vegetables for their own consumption. In term of food security, the community is barely affected by the outbreak of COVID-19 due to sufficient of safe and hygiene vegetable supplies.

The second phase of the project in 2021, an increase of participated members showed improvement in both vegetable production and number of seeds in the seed bank. So far. There are 45 types of vegetables such as purple eggplant, eggplant, sita tomato, red lentils, purple lentils, Okra and etc., to provide farmers with free local vegetable seeds for propagating and distributing to other communities.

He added that, in the future, the seed bank will be a learning centers for those who are interested.

Mr. Kiratisak Suwanthanakon, Village Headman, in the Khok Salung, as the chairman of Breeding and Larval Rearing of Freshwater Fish Project”, revealed that the project has been supported by CP Foods that provided both breeding equipment along with aquaculture knowledge and expertise, including fish nursery with high survival rate. As a result of this successful program, the local fishermen are enable to gain an extra of 3,000 - 4,000 baht per month from the original income of 7,000-9,000 baht per month.

Both projects are an attempt to create communities engagement and food security in the communities which part of the second phase of the CPF Rak Nives at Phraya Doen Thong (2021-2025) with a goal to conserve and restore forests in the Khao Phraya Doen Thong area, covering 7,000 rai.