Chiang Mai University (CMU) offers free educational programmes and outreach for local and national communities on the sustainable management of land for agriculture, in support of Sustainable Development Goal 15 (Life on Land). In 2025, this work was led by Professor Dr. Paungrat Kaewlom of the Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering,who is also Associate Dean of CMU School of Multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary Studies (MldS CMU). Both programmes below were run with the Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth), a public organisation set up by Thai law.
Training: "Sustainable Agriculture towards Low-Carbon Products", 17 November 2025. MldS CMU and ThaiHealth ran a short course for farmers,rural development workers and members of the public interested in sustainable agriculture. It was one of the new courses under the Sustainability Beyond Net Zero (Beyond-Z) project. Participants learned:
- how farming is changing and how farmers can adapt;
- how to farm the land sustainably;
- why low-carbon farm products matter and how to grow them; and
- how to grow products that sell at a fair price.
Professor Puangrat opened the course and taught it with Dr. Theerasan Boonupra, Managing Director of Living Soil Co.,Ltd.. It was held at MldS CMU, Building2.
Chiang Mai Greentopia: moving farms and kitchens to organic produce (since) 2022. Chaing Mai is a major vegetable-growing province, but most farms still rely on chemical pesticides. Tests by the CMU Faculty of Engineering with partner schools and 14 farming communities in 2021-2022 found pesticide residues in 60% of local vegetables. Greentopia, led by Professor Puangrat with ThaiHealth, builds a safe food chain from farm to plate:
- Green Farm: the team tests farm plots for chemical residues and works with more than 70 organic farmer groups, who supply homes, communities and markets.
- Green Kitchen: more than 1,000 restaurants applied, and 43 passed the vegetable tests and switched to organic vegetables, bought where needed from Green Farm growers.
- Green Your Food Festival: restuarants that meet the standard receive the Green Kitchen mark, and growers, food businesses and the public share knowledge in open forums.
In January 2025, CMU reported that blood test of 400 Chiang Mai residents in December 2024 found the province had fallen from first to fourth place nationally for pesticde residues in people's blood.
Sources
- Chiang Mai University. "MldS CMU and ThaiHealth hold training on sustainable agriculture towards low-carbon products", 17 November 2025.
- Chiang Mai University. "Faculty of Engineering lecturer and ThaiHealth advance Chaing Mai Greentopia, a model organic food system", 17 January 2025.
- Chiang Mai Greentopia. "About projects", Faculty of Engineering, CMU and ThaiHealth."