On 26 September 2019, NSTDA, local administration offices, the Land Development Department and Betagro Group signed an MOU to collaborate on “Smart Tambon Model” project. Smart Tambon Model aims to employ science, technology and innovation (STI) to support the development of local communities. The project will be piloted in seven sub-districts (Tambon in Thai) located in five provinces, namely Chong Mek (Ubon Ratchathani Province), San (Nan Province), Chai Sathan (Nan Province), Khao Din Phatthana (Saraburi Province), Huai Bong (Saraburi Province), Kham Pha-ung (Roi Et Province) and Chum Kho (Chumphon Province)
In this project, STI will be employed to support community development in five aspects, i.e. occupation, health, education, society and environment. It is expected that the project will bring about improved quality of life and well-being, reduced social disparity and better access to government services and primary education.
NSTDA will have a central role in this project by supplying appropriate technologies and innovations to the communities. Several technologies have been developed to address these five aspects of development. For example, TPMAP (Thai People Map and Analytics Platform) – a platform employing big data analytics to identify poverty-stricken provinces based on surveyed and registered data - provides in-depth information on the areas in need of development; e-Museum and Museum Pool support local tourism. To promote education, NSTDA has developed Kid Bright, an embedded board, serving as a tool for kids to easily learn about coding. To promote health and well-being of people in the local communities, Thai School Lunch System helps schools self-plan school lunch menus to meet nutritional requirement of each school age group at the school’s available budget and a health checkup kiosk measures blood pressure, height & weight and body mass index (BMI), and provides an evaluation report and medical recommendations. As most local communities are engaged in agriculture, several technologies and solutions on smart farming, organic farming and agroprocessing will be introduced.