It is hard to image such an everyday, ordinary if not slightly smelly crop such as Garlic being at the centre of such a huge row, but at the moment this seemingly harmless crop is making people travel for up to 14hours to protest in Bangkok.

For century's garlic, along with onions, apples and lycees have been the base crops that farmers in the north of Thailand have grown. The good old garlic is widely used in Thai cooking and the climate and soil in the northern regions are perfect for its cultivation.

In recent years the farmers have seen the price of their garlic crops drop from 40bath per kg (around 35pence) to 17bath per kg. The problem is that their garlic costs 21bath per kg to cultivate not making it the best business. The main problem has been has been the sudden influx of cheap garlic imports from China as a result of a Free Trade Agreement. The local farmers simply cannot compete with such cheap prices and of course the consumer will always want to pay the lowest price.

So what can they do?The answer from the Thai government has been simply?Potatos!

nd this is where I find myself standing in Mr Pong' fields just outside the village of Umpher Chaiprakarn. On one side I have rows of baby garlic covered with straw to keep the moisture in. On the other I have huge fields of traditional English furrows with the good old potato sticking out the top. Now for me, this seems a perfectly ordinary site but for a Thai person this foreign crop must seem very strange. I have to admit that I have been in Thailand for about 3 weeks now and the one thing I have not eaten is potato?in any form!? Not ever a chip has passed my lips. Basically Thai people just don't eat the thing.

So where do these potatoes go? Mr. Pong did not have any idea but what he did know was that from knowing everything there was to know about growing garlic he is now forced to grow a crop that means absolutely nothing to him but because it is cheaper than the garlic for him to grow he has line his fields with spuds. To make matters worse he is on a very informal farming contract. His potatoes will be bought for 12bath a kg. However there is a big but to this. He will only get 12bath per kg if his potatoes are a certain size shape and weight. If they don conform to this code then the price drops. He also has to use a huge amount of chemicals and pesticides to protect the potatoes from blight. And yep youve guessed it these chemicals come from outside of Thailand as they don have the industry to produce it.

Mr. Pong feels very strongly about his livelihood. He is only continuing to grow garlic as he doesn want to grow anything else and wants to keep the knowledge to pass onto his children, but many farmers have stopped bothering and are growing crops to contract.

For the villagers of Umpher Chaiprakarn the 14hour bus journey to Bangkok was the easiest thing they did that day. Their protest at what they see is a total lack of support and understanding from the Thai government has fallen on deaf ears. Of course everyone wants to be able to pay less for their goods. But it seems that the FTA is killing local industry while the government still insists that it is good thing that will benefit Thailand.

Try telling that to the garlic farmers that now grow potatoes.
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About the writer : Ed Creed is the youth website editor from ActionAid UK (www.actionaidspace.org) He joins ActionAid Thailand programme as a youth program advisor for 2 months. During this time, Ed has been experiencing Thailand and learning the social issue base on Free Trade which is not fair for Thai people!