Food Security for the Karen Hilltribes

The Karen people are an ethnic group who live along the Thailand-Myanmar border. Most of the Karen in Thailand live in the province of Mae Hong Son, where a recent United Nations survey concluded that 64% of the province lives below the World Bank Global Poverty Line of $1.90 per day. In the past, Karen farmers have built small dams using rocks, bamboo, and brushwood to interrupt the flow of a river or stream just enough to divert water to their crops. However, heavy rainfall and flash floods can seriously damage these fragile irrigation systems just as the region receives the bulk of its rainfall for the year, which means that the opportunity to conserve this precious resource is lost. As subsistence farmers depending on unreliable rainfall patterns, the Karen are only able to produce 40% of their food needs for the year, resulting in widespread malnutrition and children and young adults having to travel to cities to work as laborers to send money back to the village.

In 2016, the problem has grown worse, with Thailand experiencing its hottest recorded temperatures since 1960 leading to its worst drought in decades (see link in "Resources" section for link to news story). These worsening conditions have forced Thailand to ration its water as its rice production has fallen by 30%. These extreme weather conditions can lead to fields going dry for years on end, leading to paddies that are no longer productive. Insufficient rice yields push Karen villagers to adopt drastic measures such as "slash and burn" cultivation, which contributes towards further deforestation and environmental destruction.