Farmers’ practices proved surprisingly homogenous across
cropping systems, showing particularly small variations in water
use, and application of agrochemicals. The homogeneity in water
use between systems in one same season is due to the modelling
approach, yet the results are very different between seasons. Production
costs per ha illustrate such relative homogeneity of practices.
The limited sample size may hide the actual diversity; also,
farmers may have responded to questionnaire-based interviews in
a generic way, focussing on recommendations they receive rather
than on their actual varying practices. Indeed, in Thailand’s irrigation
projects, technical support is provided by local officers of the
RID that manages the projects, in association with agro-chemical
retailers; all tend to promote and disseminate blanket recommendations.
Further, collective water management in irrigation
systems imposes synchronicity and commonality of practice, in
single-crop systems where both rice physiology and climatic conditions
prevail over individual contingencies and liberty. The homogeneity
of practices is less comprehensible with regards to rainfed
cropping systems, performed by individual farmers, least connected
to RID. Small-scale paddy farmers often lack the education
and own experience to challenge existing norms and to experiment.
Thailand rice farmers are generally very abiding of norms and
standards set up by authorities. Strikingly, labour use shows much
more diversity, although it is also dependant on water