Mab Ueang Agri-Nature Learning Center

The Mab Ueang Agri-Nature Learning Center is the main training centre of the Agri-Nature Foundation, set on former smallholding land in Ban Bueng district, Chon Buri, in eastern Thailand. It was developed by Wiwat Salyakamthorn, known as Ajarn Yak, who returned to farming in the 1990s and rehabilitated worn-out ground into a working demonstration of self-reliant, chemical-free agriculture. Known affectionately in Thai as the "Pigsty College," it has trained generations of farmers, students and visitors in natural farming and the sufficiency economy way of life.

The centre teaches kasikam thammachat, or natural agriculture, through short hands-on residential courses. Participants learn to build living soil with compost and herbal fermentations, plant mixed food forests and perennial trees, manage water across the seasons, and make household necessities without synthetic chemicals. Much of the teaching is arranged around the Khok Nong Na model, a way of shaping land into forest, ponds, rice and living space so that a household can feed itself and store its own water. The approach shares much of its thinking with permaculture design, and Mab Ueang is one of the clearest places in eastern Thailand to see those ideas worked out at full scale.

Set across roughly forty rai, the site combines demonstration plots, tree crops, ponds and simple accommodation for course participants. It works as a farm, a classroom and a community hub, and welcomes people who want to learn practical regenerative skills rather than casual sightseers.

Through the Agri-Nature Foundation and Ajarn Yak, the centre connects to the wider permaculture and regenerative-farming movement in Thailand. Ajarn Yak is among the Thai practitioners taking part in IPC16, the International Permaculture Convergence, which comes to Thailand in 2026, and Mab Ueang's long record of teaching self-reliant, chemical-free agriculture makes it a natural point of reference for anyone exploring permaculture in the country.

The centre is in Ban Bueng district, Chon Buri, in eastern Thailand, roughly an hour and a half from Bangkok by road. Course dates and directions are arranged through the Agri-Nature Foundation; contact them in advance to confirm a visit.

Mab Ueang is a working training centre rather than a drop-in attraction. Visits and courses are arranged in advance through the Agri-Nature Foundation, and programmes are taught mainly in Thai.