Thai Buffalo Conservation Day Date in the current year: May 14, 2024

The water buffalo is one of the world’s largest bovids. It originates in Southeast Asia, China, and the Indian subcontinent. Over time, water buffalo has been introduced to the Americas, Australia, Europe, and parts of Africa. Based on behavioral and morphological criteria, two types of water buffalo are recognized – the swamp buffalo and the river buffalo. Swamp buffaloes like to wallow in mudholes, while river buffaloes prefer deep water.

Water buffaloes were domesticated millennia ago in the Indian subcontinent and China. Over 95% of their world population are kept in Asia, where they are historically used for work in paddy fields, as pack animals, and as dairy animals. In addition, water buffalo meat is a major source of export revenue for India.

The water buffalo is regarded as one of the cultural symbols of Thailand, because Thai farmers have used water buffaloes to plow rice fields for centuries. Since Thailand is one of the world’s largest producers of rice, buffaloes used to play a critical role in its economy and were quite plentiful in the country. In addition to plowing, they were used to thresh rice and to transport rice sheaves during the harvest season.

Unfortunately, the water buffalo population in Thailand has drastically declined since the introduction of agricultural machinery in rice farming around the 1960s. For instance, in 2005, there were about 1.6 million buffaloes and over 390,000 buffalo raisers in the country. Ten years later, their numbers were estimated at 700,000 and 185,000, respectively. The situation was exacerbated by illegal export of water buffaloes to neighboring countries that still use them in agriculture, such as China and Vietnam, where sales prices are higher than in Thailand.

To raise awareness of this problem and to encourage farmers to return to using buffaloes, the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives of Thailand came up with the idea of celebrating Thai Buffalo Conservation Day and received full support from the Council of Ministers of Thailand. The date of May 14 was chosen because on this day in 1980, King Bhumibol Adulyadej established the Cow and Buffalo Bank, which allowed poor farmers to lease or purchase cattle at reasonable prices.

Events and activities dedicated to Thai Buffalo Conservation Day are held across Thailand, especially in the provinces where rice farming is dominant. They include traditional blessing ceremonies for buffaloes, buffalo tilling and insemination demonstrations, agricultural fairs, and more. These events aim to remind the general public about the importance of the buffalo for the nation, as well as to promote better breeding practices to increase the population of the water buffalo. Some of the best events take place at the Buffalo Conservation Village in Suphan Buri.