From Traditional Knowledge to Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture in Asia

Continuing our series highlighting SDSN Thailand member institutions and organizations, we are pleased to introduce the Permaculture Institute Asia, a member of the SDSN Thailand network committed to advancing sustainable and regenerative approaches across Asia.

With a focus on permaculture, sustainable agriculture, and community-based learning, the Permaculture Institute Asia works to connect traditional ecological knowledge with modern science and technology to develop solutions that respond to diverse local environments and communities. Its approach emphasizes working with nature, strengthening community resilience, and empowering people—particularly young people—to become active participants in creating more sustainable food and farming systems.

In this article, we invite you to explore the vision and work of the Permaculture Institute Asia through an exclusive interview with Howard Story , Managing Director at Permaculture Institute Asia  who shares insights into the role of permaculture in building resilient communities, integrating traditional knowledge with emerging technologies, and creating pathways for young people to engage in sustainable agriculture and regenerative practices across Asia.

1. What motivated you to establish Permaculture Institute Asia and How do you define permaculture in the context of Asia’s diverse ecological and cultural landscapes?

Right, well permaculture is founded on three basic ethics, the first one being earth care and the second ethic being people care and the third ethic being fair share, in other words sharing excess resources amongst community or with others. So I founded Permaculture Institute of Asia because I saw an urgent need for region-specific solutions and Asia is home to incredible ecological biodiversity and cultural diversity, Southeast Asia in particular, you know from the Himalayan valleys to tropical coastlines and flat plains etc. for rice growing etc and as you know Asia has an ancient farming wisdom and it’s adapting to modern innovation. So permaculture is a perfect platform to incorporate both of those things into farming.

So in this context, you know, it means respecting and reviving traditional knowledge while designing systems that respond to local climates, local communities and local challenges and so it’s about creating a resilience by working with, not against, our varied landscapes and cultural heritages in Asia. 

2. How does Permaculture Asia integrate modern technologies with traditional permaculture

practices to enhance sustainability?

Well in terms of, you know, integrating sort of the five areas which are water harvesting and sequestration, flood mitigation, like how to mitigate floods, designing your land to do both of these things, also harvesting energy which these days of course is using solar energy but also wind energy depending on the region of Asia you’re in. So we use all the modern sciences to implement these new technologies like drones and solar power etc and we teach young people how to use these and how to design for them on a property and how to connect them up and set them up and basically how to start a small sustainable farm community or farm just for themselves and we have a lot of young people now coming from Bangkok and from other Asian cities to our courses who have had enough of city living and they really are interested in getting some of their own land and starting, you know, chickens and pigs and growing their own food. So it’s really encouraging to see that. 

3. How do you engage local farmers, youth, and communities in adopting sustainable agricultural

practices?

So yeah, right, so we run courses. We have a number of centers around Thailand in particular that’s our center. We work in Cambodia and Laos and Myanmar and Malaysia. We work in Nepal and India and up into Japan etc and we also teach in North America as well. But from an Asia perspective, we have in Thailand, we have Pun Pun Seed Saving and the Living Center up in Chiang Mai. We have Panya project, permaculture project also in Chiang Mai.

We have Gaia Education in Udonthani and TRT Farm in Udonthani. We have affiliates with about 120 organic farms, sustainable farms in Thailand alone. So we have them, they’re all registered and they act as hosts to anyone who wants to learn permaculture or organic sustainable farming.

And we have them on a website called wwoofthailand.com and anyone who’s interested in learning how to farm locally in Thailand, they can sign up there and go visit a farm and the farm will host them and teach them sustainable technology and sustainable permaculture methods. 

4. Can you share some innovative projects or research initiatives at Permaculture Institute Asia that have shown promising results in regenerative agriculture?

We work closely with TRT Farm and with the King’s Project in Thailand, which is very similar in many ways to permaculture. We add in some of the new technology like drones and solar power etc. Some of the projects would be our own permaculture institute in Thailand, which is in Buriram province. It’s a demonstration and educational center. We host up to 20 students, young people who want to learn regenerative farming, like using worms for fertilizer and creating lots of fertilizer, biochar, how to use it and where appropriate, how to sequester water from five different sources and rain harvesting, well drilling, pond digging, etc. And we would use our own farm in Buriram as the prime example.

But there are other examples, as I’ve mentioned, in Chiang Mai and Panya Project in Chiang Mai. Gaia Project up in Udontani and TRT Farm also in Udontani. And anyone who’s interested just needs to go to wwoofthailand.com, sign up and join. And then they can go into any of these centers and learn about permaculture and see what we’re doing there and how we’re using the technology. 

5. How has your international background and training influenced your approach to sustainability and permaculture in Thailand and Asia?

Yeah, specifically for me, my background was with IBM Canada. My wife is Thai, so I now live in Thailand and travel around the area teaching. I taught technology, database technology, etc. with IBM Canada.

And I’ve used that to incorporate Ai into permaculture techniques and also using database and data like climate change and specific local area details from weather maps etc. Also, topographical maps are very important in designing your land to leverage the water flows across your land and during the rainy season and then sequestering that for the dry season. So, I’ve used those technologies and I still, even now, right now, there’s real hope for the future with using Ai and drones and drip irrigation and some of these new technologies. So, my background has allowed me to step into that very comfortably. 

6. What advice would you give to young sustainability practitioners and entrepreneurs wanting to

make a difference? 

Well, it’s very personal and individual motivations, right? And everybody has their own for wanting to see sustainability and healthy organic foods. I think we’re being forced, all of us now, into an area of health. Health has become very important. I see it every day on the news now where people, you know, there’s higher incidence of cancers and higher incidence of people not feeling good, like having mental problems with mental fog.

And a lot of it’s been blamed on COVID. But I think actually a lot of it has to do with our food system. Using all these glyphosate pesticides and herbicides and fungicides on our foods has gotten really out of hand right now. And we’re all ingesting that on a daily basis. We’re not very careful to buy organic or grow it our own. So, I see that for any young person who wants to live healthily and have energy and wants to live a long, healthy life, I think you should consider growing your own food on a balcony or in the backyard. Or maybe a lot of city-dwelling young people, their dream is to have a piece of land and build a small house and just go off-grid. I see a lot more of that these days. So, if that’s your dream, I encourage you to fully embrace it and come to a permaculture course. They’re two weeks long. We run several of them every year in Buriram province and other parts of Asia. So, look us up. Our website is permaculture institute of asia.com. And we’ll dialogue with you and get you into a good course.