Opart Panya Still “technology-transfer ” after all these years… The Chao Phraya Delta: Historical Development, Dynamics and Challenges of Thailand's Rice Bowl 1 Still “Technology-Transfer ” After All These Years: A Search for

Abstract: In this paper, I will apply a system thinking approach to demonstrate a better way to understand changes and developments that have occurred in rural Thailand. It allows the use of both the social and natural science perspectives to view the problems and develop interventions within. Drawing from my previous fieldwork experiences in Thiland’s poverty-stricken Northeast and the case studies currently available on rural communities located in the Thailand’s Chao Phraya Delta, I argue that the lack of systems thinking is one of many problems retarding our effort to develop an alternative and more sustainable agriculture. “Every division we make is a result of how we think. In actuality, the whole world is shades merging into one. But we select certain things and separate them from others – for convenience, ” David Bohm, On Dialogue (1996)