The Isan Agricultural Fair is one of the biggest events of Khon Kaen Province, which many are waiting for. People want to see the new agricultural innovations, buy farm products, see the exhibitions from the governmental and private sectors that join in the fair, etc. However, only few know about the background of this event, which in fact, has taken its place from the selling of farm products of KKU agricultural students and from the building of the learning space outside classroom. The event thus promotes knowledge building from real practice and then such thing has expanded into a big event that at the same time celebrates every year’s KKU foundation day, the 25th of January. Khon Kaen University therefore holds the Isan Agricultural Fair continuously every year, and this year marks the 31st of the Fair.
There were 8 key zones of the Fair this year and the “KKU SMART FLOWER FARM” was one of the zone where visitors could admire the beauty of the flowers. The area of over 4.75 rais, in fact, has been a place for the students to learn, practice and solve problems.
Jakkrit Pa-oen-on, a 3rd year student majoring in agricultural innovation of the Faculty of Agriculture revealed that KKU Smart flower farm is part of the professional practicum course of the agricultural innovation field, which was open for the first time in 2019. This year, the flower fields were open for visitors to see during the same time as the 2023 Isan Agricultural Fair. His group thought that besides seeing the beautiful flowers, the place could be used as the recreation area, too.
“Generally, Agricultural Fair used to be for booths that sold different products, with inadequate areas for people to dine. The students in the field of agricultural innovation therefore had an idea to create the farm fields to be flower fields so that people could relax. The KKU SMART FLOWER FARM 2022 was prepared with cooperation of about 80 – 1st and 3rd year students of the Faculty. We had more than 5 months to allocate our time to work on planting the flowers. At the first start, we had to come every day at 6:00 a.m. We divided the duties among all students clearly. The flowers we grew included Blue Salvia, White Salvia, 4 shades of Soi Kai, Marigold, Cosmos and Sunflower. We used agricultural innovation from preparing the field with trucks, using automatic sprinklers. Sometimes there were problems, for the young plants got damaged from rain and some parts of the fields were filled with rainwater. Nevertheless, we fought together until the flower fields were successful and became the new landmark at the Isan Agricultural Fair this year.”
Apart from the KKU SMART FLOWER FARM 2022 being the learning resource for the 1st and 3rd year students of the Faculty of Agriculture, the place was also a learning space for the 2nd year students. They created the zone to build a replica of a temple with areas for different games for visitors to play, as well as a stage where students’ folk song band performed.
Kornkanok Prayoon, a 2nd year student majoring in Agricultural innovation of the Faculty of Agriculture, Khon Kaen University explained that the mimic temple and the folk song band are part of the IA Party (Innovative Agriculture Party) that was organized in parallel with the flower fields.
“The temple theme was used to attract more people to come, for a temple is an easily accessible place and every one can visit. Anyone who comes also can have fun, for there are many game booths. There are also food stalls selling various kinds of foods. Then the folk song band plays while people are enjoying the games and foods. We divided the duties among us for the work and we have allocated our time well for this. There is a team head at each booth, and we had a meeting each day to reflect the outcome of the work and solve any problems that occur. The music is played every day from 17:00 p.m. The charge for entering the flower fields and IA Party is 30 baht each, which we use for the preparation and management.”
It can be seen that the Isan Agricultural Fair had its rationale from selling farm products of the students of the Faculty of Agriculture. The learning spaces have been established for the students so that they learn from doing outside classroom. This year is the 31st year of the Fair and KKU SMART FLOWER FARM has become part of the event. Although the students only had a short time, they were able to learn from experiences, practices and problem solutions, which could be used in their future occupation.
Story: Rawiporn Saisaenthong and Patcharaporn Phettakua, a student under a practicum program at KKU Communications Division
Photos: Nattawut Jaruwong and Agricultural Innovation, KKU
