Effects of Agricultural Management in Temple Area to Life Quality of Community

Abstract

The Buddhist temple has become as place of Buddhist doctrines from the Tripitaka to people, having the monks who play important role for morality teaching through cultural and traditional activities. Some temples have agricultural activities for generating income and food resource. Moreover, such activities can promote the quality of life to the residents in the community by producing the safe food and inexpensive sale and the sources of employment, works, as well as environmental conservation using the temple’s land for growing vegetables, trees and animal farming with natural ways such as organic farming, integrated farming, agroforestry and natural farming without using chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Instead, they use bio-fermented liquid fertilizer and manure, giving producers and consumers a healthy body, clear mental health, and unity in commune, reducing the external factors depending which is one way to promote the strength of the community. In fact, the strength of community depends on capital assets for living, i.e., capital or human resource, natural, social, physical and financial capitals that are sufficient to meet the needs of community. If the community has these capitals in larger quantities, the more people in the community become a better quality of life and ready to develop. Currently, there are many temples and meditation centers sharing some areas for agricultural farming as resource of food, generating income, and opening an agricultural learning center and arranging activities to instill morals and ethics, all are the way to develop human resources. The well-known temples are such as Wat Thao Rat, Wat Manao, Wat Suan Kaew, Cherntawan International Meditation Center.