Rak Tamachat Permaculture

Nakhon Ratchasima (Korat)

Features At This Location

Accommodation Community Hub / NGO Education / Training Farm / Food Production Food forest Tours / Activities Volunteering & Internships

Permaculture education institute and ecovillage running the full PDC near Si Khiu, Nakhon Ratchasima

Rak Tamachat Permaculture Institute is a working education farm and intentional ecovillage community outside Si Khiu (Sikhiu) in Nakhon Ratchasima, the province known as Korat and the gateway to Isan. Founded in 2012 on land previously run as The Farm CQ / Panya CQ, it is one of Thailand's established hands-on permaculture schools and describes itself as an NGO and a member of Permaculture Thailand and Permaculture Asia.

The institute's core work is teaching the full curriculum. It runs the standard 72-hour Permaculture Design Course based on the 14 chapters of Bill Mollison's "Permaculture: A Designers' Manual," alongside Natural Building Courses and combined programmes that pair the two over longer stays. There is also an online PDC with a learning-management system and recorded lecture and practical videos. Beyond the certificate courses, Rak Tamachat offers internships, a residency, a permaculture diploma and further study, plus a volunteer programme.

The site is a living demonstration of what it teaches: production gardens, a food forest, water-harvesting earthworks, communal cooking and kitchen, and natural buildings put up during the building courses. Guests stay onsite, and the farm has its own accommodation for course participants.

Courses run on a monthly schedule and dates, fees and programme details change through the year, so confirm anything specific with the institute directly before you plan a visit. The residency and volunteer roles are paid placements rather than free stays, with a minimum commitment, so check current terms when you enquire.

How to Get There:

Rak Tamachat is in the countryside outside Si Khiu (Sikhiu) in Nakhon Ratchasima province, around 25 km from Si Khiu town in the village of Ban Huai Takhaeng Tai (Tambon Nong Bua Noi). It is roughly 3 hours by car from Bangkok, about 3.5 hours by bus plus a 30-minute transfer from Si Khiu (the nearest town), or about 5 hours by train to Si Khiu and then the short ride to the farm. Because the final stretch is on rural roads, the institute publishes detailed step-by-step directions from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Nakhon Ratchasima and Si Khiu on its website; contact them ahead for the current route and any pickup arrangements.

Visiting Policy:

This is a permaculture education institute, not a drop-in attraction, so courses, residencies, internships, volunteering and day trips are arranged in advance through the institute. Course participants stay onsite in the farm's own accommodation. The residency and volunteer programme are paid placements with a minimum stay rather than free work-stays. Dates, fees and minimum commitments change through the year, so contact Rak Tamachat to confirm what is currently on offer before planning your trip.

Aerial view of the production vegetable gardens, with rows of raised beds and curved keyhole beds among fruit trees and banana plants, at Rak Tamachat Permaculture, Si Khiu, Nakhon Ratchasima.A worker pushing a wheelbarrow along a grassy path through a banana grove and food forest beside an old farm truck, at Rak Tamachat Permaculture, Si Khiu, Nakhon Ratchasima.A group of course participants posing in the orchard holding bare-root tree seedlings and a wheelbarrow during a planting session, at Rak Tamachat Permaculture, Si Khiu, Nakhon Ratchasima.People propagating and potting plant cuttings under a shade structure in the nursery, with wheelbarrows and bags of potting mix, at Rak Tamachat Permaculture, Si Khiu, Nakhon Ratchasima.Overhead view of two people pressing wet earth into a wooden mould to make adobe mud bricks on the grass, with finished bricks drying nearby, at Rak Tamachat Permaculture, Si Khiu, Nakhon Ratchasima.A group of natural-building course participants sitting together on a course of earthbag wall at dusk, with tall grasses behind, at Rak Tamachat Permaculture, Si Khiu, Nakhon Ratchasima.Two course participants examining a glass bottle of liquid resting on the lid of a large terracotta water jar, with farm buildings and a dirt track behind, at Rak Tamachat Permaculture, Si Khiu, Nakhon Ratchasima.An instructor presenting to course participants reclining on bamboo daybeds in the brick-walled indoor classroom hall with a projector screen, at Rak Tamachat Permaculture, Si Khiu, Nakhon Ratchasima.Aerial view of green-roofed farm buildings surrounded by fruit trees, banana plants and large terracotta water jars, at Rak Tamachat Permaculture, Si Khiu, Nakhon Ratchasima.A raised wooden teak bungalow on stilts with a veranda, nestled among bamboo and trees, at Rak Tamachat Permaculture, Si Khiu, Nakhon Ratchasima.The open communal kitchen with hanging pots and pans and a wooden boat-shaped tray piled with squash and papaya in the foreground, at Rak Tamachat Permaculture, Si Khiu, Nakhon Ratchasima.A row of green-roofed accommodation huts on the far bank of a pond, with people floating on inner tubes in the water, at Rak Tamachat Permaculture, Si Khiu, Nakhon Ratchasima.