Faculty

Development Studies, Environmental Studies, Social development, sociology of agriculture/environmental sociology, Area studies (Southeast Asia, especially Thailand)

I have done research on the role of organic farming, integrated farming, agroforestry, and certification standard called GAP (good agricultural practices), or collectively called ‘sustainable agriculture,’ for farm management and livelihoods of small-scale farmers and environmental protection in Southeast Asia (especially Thailand). In the future, I would also like to do research on issues related to water resource use in rural Southeast Asia, by crisscrossing the viewpoints of policy makers and ordinary people involved.

To study the ‘sustainability of agriculture’ is to examine the sustainability of the livelihood of individual farmers you meet in the field and of the local environment surrounding them. You can therefore enjoy the real pleasure of directly linking experiences with knowledge. Meanwhile, agriculture is an anthropogenic act significantly involved with the emission of greenhouse gases. As also seen in the case of afforestation activities as typhoon countermeasures through agroforestry, agriculture relates to global issues such as global warming and climate change. Hence, studying the sustainability of agriculture could be an excellent theme in thinking multidirectionally about our future of ‘sustainable development.’