Nawee Nakwatchara is founder of Grassroot Innovation Network, which enables farmers
to become their own agents of change by giving farmers a small, “learning plot” of land
to experiment on. Working with small landowners in the Northeast of Thailand, Nawee
is empowering farmers to break the cycle of debt and dependency on unviable farming
practices by placing an emphasis on increasing productivity and cutting production costs
through integrated farming, low-cost technology, and drawing on local wisdom. Farmers
decide what to experiment with in their plot of land, while Nawee provides the farmers
with technical assistance in transforming their best ideas into widely replicable
agricultural practices. He has formed a microcredit cooperative to provide financing and
established a business firm to undertake larger-scale production and marketing tasks on
behalf of a 300-member-households group. Nawee has received his degree in
biotechnology at Thammasat University in Bangkok.