Sustainable Agriculture & Dairy in Thailand

In February 2025, a team from CALS will travel to Thailand to kick off a new collaboration focused on innovation and development in dairy. The project was initiated this past summer following Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin’s visit with Her Royal Highness (HRH) Princess Sirindhorn of Thailand. 

A brief background: His Majesty the Late King Bhumibol, HRH Princess Sirindhorn’s father, initiated dairy cow farming in Thailand decades ago to promote milk for good health and to introduce a new career for Thai farmers. The initiative was well received and after many years, HRH Princess Sirindhorn sees that there is a need to review and improve dairy production in Thailand.

The project is being led on the Thai side by two Thai universities who are working with The Royal Institute to innovate and develop dairy in Thailand. The two universities are Chitralada Technology Institute (CDTI), and King Mongkut Technology Institute Thonburi (KMUTT). Dr. Siwat Sangsritawong, a CALS alumnus, is leading their technical team. The Wisconsin Alumni Association of Thailand (WAAT) has been playing an important facilitative role, and we are very grateful for the thorough and generous support from all the Thai partners.

The site visit team is likely to be part of a larger team that works on this initiative and includes Victor Cabrera (Animal & Dairy Sciences), Luiz Ferraretto (Animal & Dairy Sciences), David Jaramillo (USDA), and Brian Luck (Biological Systems Engineering). We will begin the visit at our partners, Chiang Mai University, for an international conference on climate smart agriculture. Dr. Cabrera is also an invited speaker at the conference.

From there, Dr. Luck will visit farms and communities in the region to investigate air quality issues related to postharvest management. The rest of the team will travel to Bangkok to meet with the Thai partners leading the dairy initiative and meet our WAAT network. The purpose of the site visit is to further understand our partners’ context and goals, discuss specific research, training and related activities and co-develop a strategy for collaboration.

There will be additional opportunities to get involved and updates on the partnership in future newsletters.