Bristol-Myers Squibb (Thailand) Ltd

Project Areas:

 Baan Nong Kok, Sadao Sub District, Nang Rong, Buri Ram Province

The Project:

 Bristol-Myers Squibb, a pharmaceutical producer, joined TBIRD in 1991. Like many companies whose products require a great deal of technical sophistication to produce, there was little opportunity for Bristol-Myers to use its TBIRD partnership with Nong Kok village to produce a product that the company could use or sell. Given that the income in the village was primarily derived from agriculture, Bristol-Myers decided it could best contribute by improving agricultural techniques. The means came from an adaptation of a model for agricultural production called a Vegetable Bank.

The Vegetable bank model contrasts greatly with traditional agricultural practices where the staple crops are rice and cassava. The rice is used for human consumption, and the cassava for animal feed, and without irrigation farmers can expect only one crop per year. To escape the constraints of low-rainfall irrigation sources, PDA has promoted the development of irrigated intensively cropped vegetable gardens. This means the villagers grow vegetables, herbs and if close enough to a market, flowers. If care is taken to control water usage, a single well is enough to provide irrigation for up to fifty 800 square metre plots. A single plot can provide a cash income of up to 200 Baht per day, which is significantly higher than the average daily wage for many jobs in the Northeast. As many of the vegetable plots can be tended in the mornings and evenings, villagers can seek other employment, and children can assist after school hours.

After Bristol Myers met with villagers in 1991, the two groups joined to establish the Vegetable Banks at Nong Kok. PDA dug the well and installed the irrigation pumps, and the Government gave permission for the use of 25 rai of land. Bristol-Myers provided the funding for the provision of the infrastructure, and hired a full time coordinator to work with a committee selected from amongst the 43 families that joined the project. Bristol-Myers also provided the initial loan that paid for the site construction, however the villagers are required to repay the loan through the charges levied for water consumption. This not only gives the villagers a stake in the project as they will own it once the loan is repaid, it also encourages water conservation.

As a result of the success of Vegetable Bank projects like this one, over 10 sites are implementing similar systems with assistance from TBIRD. The aim of TBIRD projects is to improve the living standards of all villagers in the area, whether direct participants in the projects or not.

 

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Adapted from "Business for Development, The HRD Approach of the Thai Business Initiative for Rural Development." United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific