klubex99

OK,now be careful. Ask the wife about the need for spirithouses, pigs head kit and monks, maybe a few drinks inthe village. Gotta keep the locals happy!

Oh, by the way, let herdo all that, your job is to smile and have empty pockets!

Haha.. You obviously know how it works around here. Yes, the MIL has already told me I need a spirit house, and the monks and the party, so I might as well go along with it (again).

The pockets will be getting drained once again, but all in a good cause. At least these country types will be happy with Hong Thong, not like my wedding where the city types rejected it and demanded Johnny Walker.

On a slightly different note, but just as relevant.

Just goes to show that no matter how much work you put in and fail to find what you are looking for, as you give up and stop looking, you end up tripping over it.....

My FIL had been talking to one of his friends the other day, and telling him about our projects and the land we were looking for to rent or buy to accommodate these projects. This guy just happens to own hundreds of rai all over Korat. He said that he has a lot of land he doesn't use and asked us if we wanted to look at it. So he sent his wife over yesterday and she took us literally 10 minutes from our house to a 30 rai parcel of land with a small mango orchard, 3 large ponds and lots of spare land. It also has 2 buildings on it, one I would say was a classic cinder block outbuilding/workshop type structure about 35 x 15, the other a very large barn with 2 floors approx 40 x 20.

This land is perfect for my wife's mushroom and fish project and the buildings will save us a fortune in building mushroom houses. We only need to have half a dozen more ponds dug out and we are pretty much up and running, although there is no electricity on site, I will bring in a dozen solar panels and hook them up with an inverter to give us all we need.

The land is also fenced and gated and there is an old woman that lives there taking care of the place. She lives in a small hut, I have to look at putting up something a bit better than that and getting her a TV and decent bed.

I asked how much to rent, he said he did not want any money and we were welcome to use the land for 10 years if we wanted, I had to insist that we pay him rent and get a contract together so he said "fine.... pay me 10 baht per rai per year". Totally shocked.... But the guy is minted after all. He has known my wife since a baby, and wants to look after her and make sure she is ok.

What a nice fella.

To quote Gold Tooth Tony from Snatch, "You lucky bastard"

OK,now be careful. Ask the wife about the need for spirithouses, pigs head kit and monks, maybe a few drinks inthe village. Gotta keep the locals happy!

Oh, by the way, let herdo all that, your job is to smile and have empty pockets!

Haha.. You obviously know how it works around here. Yes, the MIL has already told me I need a spirit house, and the monks and the party, so I might as well go along with it (again).

The pockets will be getting drained once again, but all in a good cause. At least these country types will be happy with Hong Thong, not like my wedding where the city types rejected it and demanded Johnny Walker.

On a slightly different note, but just as relevant.

Just goes to show that no matter how much work you put in and fail to find what you are looking for, as you give up and stop looking, you end up tripping over it.....

My FIL had been talking to one of his friends the other day, and telling him about our projects and the land we were looking for to rent or buy to accommodate these projects. This guy just happens to own hundreds of rai all over Korat. He said that he has a lot of land he doesn't use and asked us if we wanted to look at it. So he sent his wife over yesterday and she took us literally 10 minutes from our house to a 30 rai parcel of land with a small mango orchard, 3 large ponds and lots of spare land. It also has 2 buildings on it, one I would say was a classic cinder block outbuilding/workshop type structure about 35 x 15, the other a very large barn with 2 floors approx 40 x 20.

This land is perfect for my wife's mushroom and fish project and the buildings will save us a fortune in building mushroom houses. We only need to have half a dozen more ponds dug out and we are pretty much up and running, although there is no electricity on site, I will bring in a dozen solar panels and hook them up with an inverter to give us all we need.

The land is also fenced and gated and there is an old woman that lives there taking care of the place. She lives in a small hut, I have to look at putting up something a bit better than that and getting her a TV and decent bed.

I asked how much to rent, he said he did not want any money and we were welcome to use the land for 10 years if we wanted, I had to insist that we pay him rent and get a contract together so he said "fine.... pay me 10 baht per rai per year". Totally shocked.... But the guy is minted after all. He has known my wife since a baby, and wants to look after her and make sure she is ok.

What a nice fella.

Well we had the guys come to do the land survey yesterday. They bashed in the concrete markers and even put in flags for us so we could see them all from a single view. Nice of them I thought.

The neighbours had to all be there to confirm their boundaries with the guys. There were no disputes. There was a hell of a lot of paper signing from a hell of a lot of people. Quite a long winded and convoluted process.

One thing I found strange was that the surveyors didn't even bring a spade or post holer to make the hole for the markers, they said we were supposed to supply it... Weird. So the MIL had to go into the village and borrow one, which the owner came over to help us out for 100 baht and do all the digging required... How sweet of him. He looked a bit astonished at the end when the surveyor boss handed him a file of paperwork and 200 baht and told him to go to the village elder and some other guy and get the papers signed and then to take the file to the land office... One minute he is lending a shovel out, the next he is doing clerical administration. Strange place Thailand. But anyway, he ended up with over 500 baht for his 2 hours labour. Not a bad score in those parts.

Anyway, we were told that we will receive the chanote in less than a month. So smiles all round. We can go ahead and put the teak in now. That's the future secured for wifey and my kids.

Don't know what sort of value it adds to the land, but I am not worried about that, the trees will take 20 years, by then the village may have expanded and consumed the land, and so may be worth a small fortune, but to us, the value is in the fact that we have undisputable ownership and nobody can take it away.

Hello All, is this the place??(see pic), This place was a mile before

you got to the old Korat Immigration in the TOT building.

You can see the greenhouses in the center of the picture. If I'm

correct, this is the farm that supplies Klang Plaza(Crown Plaza).

The head guy use to be seen at Crown by Ya Mo in the produce

dept. every now and then.

rice555

Hi Rice555

Naaa, I actually got the university name wrong, it is the Suranaree University of Technology in Modosor.

How I get to it from Cho Ho is go down the bypass and over the overpass towards Pak Thong Chai (The 304), carry on for about 6KM till just past the army camp on the left, then turn into the university road, then about 4KM up there (past Cafe Patini....yummy) to the roundabout at the university entrance and take the first left, then follow the road about 3 KM and there is a turning on the left (after the rubber plantation) with high hedgerows. You can drive down about a KM to the entrance on the left, you will see what I mean.

I tried to locate it on Google maps, but it is a bit difficult to track from the sky and I really only went there once when wifey mom wanted me to look at cultivating the subject fruit.

They grow lots of things on the estate but the Japanese Melon area is a bit like Area 51... They seem overly paranoid, or maybe just very protective of their niche.

I may go there for lunch tomorrow afternoon, so i will take another drive there with my camera. Hope I don't get shot at

@ Slapout.

It's all good, will look to see if I can spot a helipad, if not, I can offer to build one, I already built one on an oil rig (back in the day).

Edit: Wifey found this... It's not the farm in question but a Thai Japanese melon outfit.

Here is their website.

http://alangcity.blogspot.com/2012/12/blog-post_18.html

Now do you really think a Thai would build a mansion, even for a melon foreman who is part of the immediate family.? Watch for the 4X4 with 50 cal. mounted on top and the pack of dobermans, just be careful in scoping the operation out. ........

I go over to Modosor on average every 2 weeks. I go to a farang owned restaurant that I like there. I will take my camcorder next time and get some shots to post here. Then you can make up your own mind. I don't have time to come to thaivisa to post BS.

I would say that the owners live in that place, not the family foreman.

I already know Thais who live in a huge mansion. Not farmers, but own a chain of flower shops that they cleverly place outside temples, It's their duty to show off their wealth to everyone else.

Just to confirm.

The wife's family wanted me to go into Japanese Melon. There is a very large farm not far from me (20KM) near Modosor University in Korat. The farm is huge, I would say at the minimum 1000 Rai. It has 4 meter tall hedges planted all around it with additional screening. Huge gates with spikes on the top, security cameras and from what I have learned, has it's own nursery and laboratory in there and the whole operation is so hush hush, one may think that they were developing nukes or something.

I have actually managed to steal a peek inside. and have seen the nurseries, they are huge. But one thing is for sure, the owners of that operation appear to have got mega-rich from it, and so are obviously protecting their interests. The farmhouse is nothing short of a country mansion.

Klubex99

[Why didn't the Thai owners upgrade to full chanote?..... They didn't want to waste the 3000 THB which just about reinforces my opinion of the laughing farmer.]

Please enlighten me as how you were able to up grade the title. One title is an aerial survey or map deed, the other is a ground survey with concrete markers in the ground.

A few years ago I paid 30,000 to get some land surveyed by the charnote people. As it was not in the areas that the charnotes were being issued [ main road ] it may be 10 years before the title gets issued. Charnotes are not issued by the local land office, but come from BKK.

Charnote upgrades are free, part of the Thai Government plan to allow farmers to borrow money on low title land and are issued where the charnote survey team is working. You just don't go to the land office and pay 3,000 Baht.

Thais are not that stupid, if they could up grade titles easily and double or triple the land value, there would be a line a mile long at the land office. Jim

Hi Jim.

just had a word with the wife, I conveyed your enquiry, and here is actually how it stands.

Obviously wifey has been handling all of this, not me, i can't do it I am not allowed to own it. Anyway, she has explained it all to me in detail. Here is what she said.

We actually have the deeds on 6 rai plus another 6 rai, this is because the person we bought from split the land into 4 x 6 rai plots and gave them to her 4 children who are in their 20s living in BKK.

I have been told the actual price for the rai for upgrade, and it was 2166 baht for each of the 2 plots. This is actually for the land survey fee, and that is done this coming Thursday, this is when they bash in the concrete markers.

The wife said that after Thursday within one week we will get the fully surveyed title, and that we have to go back to the office and they will have it upgraded to full chanote, and the fee is 15 baht. They said this will only take about a week to complete, but at the land office there was a room upstairs that we definitely went into for the express purpose of upgrading to chanote and they looked in the files and even explained it fully that if this file says no, then you can't have it, but if it says yes, then you can have it (chanote) the guy opened the file and it said YES.

So as far as i am concerned we will have that fully upgraded within 2 weeks. That's what the guy in the office said. I have no reason to think my wife would be mistaken about it. She is a very intelligent woman. Sharp as a tack.

It was my misunderstanding of what she was explaining last week that made me think we already have it, but we as good as do have it.

The land office for that area is actually very fast, and there are hardly any people there when we go, and that is why everything is fast for us. In town aparently it takes a whole lot longer. I will be happy to scan the chanote and post it here for you to see. (when i get it).

Edited to add.

Sorry for the inacurate information regarding the 3000 baht fee, it was a misunderstanding because the wife did say that it is less than 3000 baht. That is what stuck in my mind...... hey, its money, I always remember those bits

As far as farang money buying land.... You should have been required to sign a document and provide copy of your passport. The document states that the land purchased is purchased with (wife's) money and that the land is private property of hers and not considered marital property. My wfe has never had to show bank info. I have had to sign this document on every piece that we bought though.

We have our own sugarcane experiment going. 3 rai, 3 different strains of sugar, varying planting and fertilising from the local norm. We also have 100 rai with 2 different strains and we are moving away from the local norm on these parcels as well. Difficult though as we are planted already and the way that they plant makes it difficult to do much with the crop aside from what they normally do. Probably the biggest obstacle I can see so far is irrigation on a larger scale. I have seen the 100 ton per rai farms and that is great if you have that kind of money to put into large pieces of land. Our experiment is more focused on trying to find a way to increase yield in a way that is applicable on a large scale. Our target this year is to just get to over 20 rai. I think it is pretty realistic that we will do that, even with the way that we are planted.... the Thais plant their rows very close together.....the sugar strangles itself and besides that, doing other work such as removing dead waste, fertiziing by hand, watering by hand, supporting heavy cane or weed control as the plant matures becomes increasingly more difficult.

We had 2 parcels and just bought and planted a third. On the 2 parcels, one did 16 tons per rai. We fertilised twice as much as anyone else and they all think I am crazy. On the other piece, we did poorly. we got 10 ton per rai. We had termites and lack of water. They are impressed with our 16 tons and the 10 tons is normal in this area...shitty.

I have moved here now to do it myself. I have been here for 3 months. Being an absentee farmer was not working so we will try it this way. We are still camping in a hut outside the village on the experiment land and are getting really tired of that. After being here for a while I can see the obstacles that they run into. Most of them are avoidable with a different perspective and money. This you cannot fault them for. The majority here do not have the money to do it properly. I see people struggling and doing their best....with nothing. ou have to credit them for keepin on and doing what they can do.

If you are energetic, there is a lot of information available. It would be nice if the few of us that are farming sugar kept a forum going on it. Perhaps a pinned sugarcane topic would be good. Some of us have it all figured out already and some don't. It would be good to sharer info.

Regards, Daron

Hi Canada.

Sounds to me like you have your head screwed on the right way.

I agree that we should keep this going, and yes I am energetic as well as very enthusiastic. I just spent the past 12 hours sat here reading the farming forum. It's what I do from time to time, not because I have nothing better to do, but because I consider 12 hours on this forum to be more valuable than 6 months on an agro course. There is no replacement for real life experiences, and they serve well to help anyone avoid the mistakes of others.

I have no problem with the thread derailing slightly here and there. It is good to have different elements thrown in which can stoke the curiosity in other forms of farming. For example I was reading another topic earlier that skewed off for a few posts on a mushroom planting tangent which caused me to go and hunt a mushroom farming thread which I really enjoyed and found quite fascinating considering I knew sod all about mushrooms apart from the taste. I feel I could go out and start a mushroom farm tomorrow now....lol

I am always looking to diversify. It is good business sense not to put all your eggs in one basket... incidentally I may go off and explore egg production next.

But seriously, I commend you on your efforts to improve your yields, I really hope you find the perfect balance of costs/reward. Once you can generate more profit per rai, is when you can fund the cost of expanding the methodology across your entire operation, albeit bit by bit, but you will get there because I sense you are that type of individual.

Would be nice to possibly come and see your operation sometime, where are you located?

Regarding the land purchase, yes I had to sign my entitlements away like a good farang. My wife said that basically it was a waiver, that if we break up or whatever, that I know that I am not allowed to claim any ownership.... blah blah blah... you know the rest, and yes, they photocopied my passport and made me sign copies.

But I am stoked that we were able to get chanote on the land, because that gives us the full rights to register the teak for harvesting as and when. But we were already told that we can plant and cut it from the local forestry commission.

Onwards and upwards.

This has been exciting, so what's happening? Found another plot yet or what?

Nope, drew nothing but blanks, but I have put some word around that I am happy to pay a 'spotters fee' to anyone who can find exactly what I want. Save me a lot of driving about and fuel costs etc...

I need to knuckle down on the administrative side of my projects this week having given them scant attention over the past 10 days or so. If I don't catch up by the end of the week, by next week it will be like trying to juggle buckets of water.

But I can only really devote so much time to this before I have to face reality of either buying the land or moving on to other things.

My MIL keeps asking the wife why I am going into farming, even though I have explained so many times. But Thais find it hard to grasp why a farang who can earn a lot of money doing other things, wants to retard thenselves into what the poor people of Thailand have to do, and mostly not out of choice. Like I am choosing LoSo over HiSo.

But there are many complex reasons, and I don't really expect her to understand. Thais don't normally think big, and that sometimes creates a barrier of understanding.

True that, but what these people don't understand is that it IS possible to generate high incomes from farming, even in Thailand. Rice farming may be back breaking and not get you anywhere income-wise (which is the basis for many of these local's attitudes I suspect), but sugar cane though it's not my area of expertise may have the potential of generating a certain level of income. You should knock back all the local doomsayers who think you'll fail or laugh at your idea because in all likelihood, they just don't have a clue that there are actually many foreigners involved in agriculture and that there is money to be made in farming. At the very least you could also say you are doing it for fun, but at the end of the day it's nobody's business. Try and find some land and then see what happens - personally I can't see how it can be so hard just to find that elusive parcel of land you are looking for. Without going into detail I have found the response to my idea quite the opposite to your experience (although I'm not attempting to grow sugar cane). I would rent a plot of land from people I know (already numerous people have offered to rent out their land to me for this purpose) to grow a certain viable crop and then process it in a factory somewhere else. It beats trying to purchase this crop commercially from wholesalers as the supply from those people is uncertain.

Try telling that to the thai farmers you will be laughed at, i know a few major sugar cane farmers and they are all trying to get out.

It is bloody hard work and you pay out a lot get money come in it soon goes out again, workers are wanting more now so costs are going up.

Any Falang who thinks he can just rent land and put down sugar and make a profit is delusional the costs are very high, and without your own truck and tractor and own workers you costs are even more.

You seem to have forgotten the purpose of the exercise in the original post, or maybe you skimmed over it.

This is not about farming for a living, this is about maximizing the cash yield from a rai of land. It is a research and development exercise. It is purely to find the best method of farming sugarcane for profit.

We all know that the huge majority of sugar farmers in Thailand are not making a lot of money from their crop. But this is mainly because they don't know what they are doing. They are not using good business practices, and rely on what almost all (epecially Thai) sugar farmers have done for years. They do not adapt to new methods easily. The fact that they will laugh at you is actually the exact attitude that holds them back.

If by investing 40,000 THB in each rai of sugar will make it yeild 100 tonnes, then why isn't it being done? I will tell you why... RISK! No Thai farmer will risk a huge outlay on a risk, they play it safe and get by the way they have for years with their 12 tonnes per rai, and a 3000 THB investment in it.

The whole idea of my experiment is to find a more acceptable 'risk/return ratio. Say for example, maybe the results of the experiment will produce a method that would cost 15000THB in investment per rai but will create a yield of 40 tonnes p/r.

Wouldn't that be a much more intelligent way to farm sugar? Based on say 1000 baht per tonne, that would give a huge leap from 8,000 p/r to 25,000 p/r or maybe it could yeild 60 tonnes for an investment of 20,000 THB p/r raising the profits up to 40,000 p/r.

Successful farming is the same as any other business model, you have to maximize profits. If there is a way available to achieve this, then who is going to be the one that is laughing? The man who uses the best business practices or the man who has been 'doing it that way for years'?

Anyway. I scrapped the idea of renting, and went with the idea of buying.

I have bought 12 rai and will buy another 12 rai which is connected to it next month. Although this first 12 rai was for another project of mine which is teak plantation for the purpose of selling '50 tree' medium to long term investment plots. The second 12 rai will be split between 6 rai for agarwood (aquilaria crassna) planting, the last 6 rai will be used for the sugar experimentation.

I won't be doing the sugar till the end of the year, I will have missed the window I wanted to get it planted in. But I have plenty of things to keep me busy till then. I will be making lots of videos of the whole experiment process, and will keep this thread updated with them, in case anyone is interested in the project. 6 rai will be used for 6 varying methods although I have a fair idea that soil prep and fertilisation is going to probably end up being the best and most successful method for the best cost/profit ratio.

The land is only 40KM from my house and it is surrounded by sugar, the soil is perfect for it, and it has all year water with a very large stream running through it and irrigation pipes already running from it to the plantable land. Just need to take a pump down there for when the stream is low, when it is high it will irrigate itself. But this could be a bit much for the teak, I will need to concrete the pipes up that feed those rai and add a valve system to turn the water on and off as and when needed. There is also a large pond on the land that is covered by trees, so it won't dry up, it still has lots of water in it. I think it is only about 2 metres deep, so I think I will get a big excavator down there and make it more like 8 to 10 metres deep.

The land I had to put in my wife's name (obviously) she is also my business partner, and I trust her 100% we will have children soon, so we may just put it in their names. The land only cost 60,000 THB p/r and has a road right up to it, as well as the already mentioned water. It also has electricity cables running past it. In case we ever want to hook up.

The status of the land is what my wife calls 'nor sor sam kor' I don't know how to spell it, but she says it is the next level down from chanote land, and means that it could be easily transferred to chanote. So when we were at the land office doing the transfer of the ownership, we asked about it, and they said we can have chanote on it no problem, so once we handed the cash over to the seller and the deal was sealed, we went upstairs and set up the transfer to chanote which was accepted and cost us the sum of around 3000 THB for the lot, so now we have 12 rai of full chanote land.... simplest process I ever went through in this country. Already the land is probably worth twice what we paid for it, so we got a result. which is why we are going to buy up as much land as we can in that area.

Interstingly, when the money had changed hands and the supervisor at the land office put the final seal on the deeds, she said to my wife that she hoped my wife realised that if she (the supervisor) found out that it was falang money that paid for the land, she could go to prison (my wife) and the land confiscated by the government. But she said that because it was only 12 rai she won't ask to look at her bank statement. But if it were say 100 rai, then she would need to bring in her statement to show it is her money.

So I have started a practice of transferring cash to my wife's bank account every week to cover all future land purchases (just to be safe). Although my wife just laughs and says, if they found out, we would just pay the manager some money and they will go away.....lol Sounds about right.

Why didn't the Thai owners upgrade to full chanote?..... They didn't want to waste the 3000 THB which just about reinforces my opinion of the laughing farmer.

Of course there are always more reasons to grow something when you are viewing it for selfish reasons and care less about others.

I started reading this thread because I thought it may contain lots of good information about what to me is a very ecconomical crop to farm, but saw how quickly it was hijacked by the anti-smoking lobbyists, I thought it nevessary to chirp in my tuppence worth.

This section is supposed to be about sharing knowledge of farming and discussion, not as a platform for finger poking at individuals whom in my honest opinion are just looking for ecconomical use from their land.

Many people farm for business purposes and so ethics based on the limited views of only a certain percentage of individuals should never be considered. Business is for making money, and if the guy can make good revenue from farming tobacco, then so be it, he has all the right in the world to farm a base product that has a huge demand. He is hardly a drug dealer.

If people are going to smoke the product, then they are going to smoke it, no matter who grows it. There will always be tobacco in the world to be smoked.

In the USA 'obesity' from over eating and lack of exercise has overtaken smoking as the number 1 preventable cause of death with 1 in 4 Americans being classed as obese which is a huge figure compared to smokers. Yet you would not walk up to someone and comment on how fat they were, and that they should not eat so much and exercise more... Nope, that would be socially unacceptable behaviour, yet it is acceptible to comment to someone that their smoking is a filthy and dangerous habit and that they should stop it..... in essence, what's the difference?

This division between smoking and obesity is possibly the cause of the year on year increase in fat people, and its not just the USA, it is increasing all over the world, even here in Thailand.

Did you know that fit and healthy people are more of a burden on health services and country ecconomies than people who smoke?... It's true.

Someone who looks after themselves, don't smoke, drink only a small amount of alcohol and watch their diets and exercise more, tend to live a lot longer into old age, which means they use up welfare and pension services as well as are usually in and out of hospital as bits and pieces start to go wrong as they get into their 70s, 80, and 90s. They are a huge burden on those critical and financial resources.

Yet a smoker will usually peg it at a resonable age, and maybe use only a small amount of these same resources. Also, as I am from the UK I can only comment on UK stats, but smokers currently contribute around £3 Billion to the Tax revenue system every yaer, and if everyone stopped smoking overnight which a lot of people seem to want, then you can expect your income tax to rise by 3% and with an extra 100,000 people every year living longer, using valuable health resources and dipping into the pension fund.

It could see an income tax rise of 5% .. Which is all great because it would give the anti-smoking lobbyists something to replace their moaning with.

If we want to bend down to the 'purists' among us and stop the drinking as well as the smokers.... expect up to 10% income tax rise to absorb the losses. While of course you wait 12 years on the waiting list for a cateract operation.

A farming business is for making money, and in business there should be no room for moral debate.

Once I was stuck in no-man's land between Thailand and Malaysia - neither of them would let me in! I've heard of some being stuck there for months.

Yes... I almost fell foul of the same situation many years ago in the territory between Tanzania and Malawi. Malawi would not let me in and Tanzania would not let me back. It's a long story, but the upshot of it is, I ended up bribing a Malawian immigration official for a 7 day transit visa. Without that bribe, I would have been locked out in nowhereville for god knows how long, as both countries refused to take responsibility for me.

This topic has been debated by various states (e.g. France, Russia, etc.) claiming that travelers who were in the international zone of an airport were not subject to the national law (this position was taken to deal with illegal refugees). However, the European Court of Human Rights stated that despite its name, the international zone does not have extraterritorial status and that regardless of national legislation to the opposite, individuals in the international zone were subject to national law. Jurisdiction extends to the entirety of a state's formally recognized territory, which includes the airport's international zone. Therefore, until a plane is airborne, a passenger is still subject to national legislation.

Very good post.

One thing though.

There is a distinct difference between what constitutes legislation regarding 'rights' and what constitutes legislation governing 'licensing'. For example, could some entity apply to open a casino in the airport international zone? In a country where gambling is illegal but allows it to happen between its border with another country to the extent that they allow official operators to run package trips for gambling from inside its borders to the 'no man's land' casinos.

Until you cross land border or leave a countries airspace 12 miles off their coast you still fall under their laws. The same applies when arriving at destination. The international space is covered by international conventions and treaties.

That is a good point. But why are there casinos between the land borders if gambling is illegal in Thai law?

This no mans land. So is it an agreement between the two bordering countries?

In a land crossing it is a lot different to an airport, because a land border is an adjoining space between 2 countries, yet an airport is between the country it is in, and the 'rest of the world'.

What laws did you brake or are attemting to brake in this "non-place" zone?

None at all, and don't intend to break any laws either in Thailand or outside of Thailand or any grey areas in-between.

I wanted to get something cleared up.

I have had this discussion many times with various farang and it yeilds very mixed responses and views.

When you are flying to another country from Suvarnabhumi airport and you are stamped out of passport control, then you pass through the security section, you are effectively in the departure lounge. So I want to know, are you technically no longer in Thailand at this point?

Does Thai law exist there?

What are the international protocols for these zones? (surely laws must exist to keep order there).

Do licensing laws apply?

I have tried to ask professor Google, but he can't give me a straight answer, so I am opening this debate. Is that zone the same as we have between the country of departure and the country of destination on a land border? Is it a 'non-place'?

Would be nice to get this thing cleared up.

So the whole world will be congtregating in Bangkok on the 21st to die at the hands of a dam?

Pathetic!

And another thread goes off topic

OP, we have 30+ rai in Chaiyaphum that we could rent to you.

It will be available in January. Includes a very large pond on site, not sure exact size as I've only seen pics..

I was out of country when my wife bought the plot but it is very fertile and water is not an issue.

Thanks

Sent you an email.

I guess that this has veered off topic a bit but is interesting.

For my two pence I think being 50% in love is a non starter so always go all in.

If it fuc_ks up then sure lots of tears but my latest effort has gone 16 years now and shows no signs of flagging so I am getting better at it

I am more than happy to lose everything I have in Issan if god forbid my wife passed away or kicked me out.

To the OP I would suggest scaling back the amount of land you want to rent. As you are finding it is not that easy to find so

how about just renting 1 or 2 rai and spending your mney on irrigating that in order to test the theories. If they turn out well then go for it in a bigger way. With any new project I always favour the slow approach. If it works then expand and go in big time.

Same with women really

Hi all....

Sorry I haven't kept on the thread much, I needed to catch up on a few other things.

I agree that it is not easy finding 50 rai, so I have actually already decided to scale down as there is much more availability and quite close to me.

So I will be going for just the 5 rai for the experimental, that also over-rides any labour problems, I think 5 rai is more than manageable for me and the wife to look at ourselves. I would use the brokers to sell it and get a small return although there won't be any profit, only a loss. But I have sidelined Bt200K for it, and won't be too upset if I lost the lot.

This has been exciting, so what's happening? Found another plot yet or what?

Nope, drew nothing but blanks, but I have put some word around that I am happy to pay a 'spotters fee' to anyone who can find exactly what I want. Save me a lot of driving about and fuel costs etc...

I need to knuckle down on the administrative side of my projects this week having given them scant attention over the past 10 days or so. If I don't catch up by the end of the week, by next week it will be like trying to juggle buckets of water.

But I can only really devote so much time to this before I have to face reality of either buying the land or moving on to other things.

My MIL keeps asking the wife why I am going into farming, even though I have explained so many times. But Thais find it hard to grasp why a farang who can earn a lot of money doing other things, wants to retard thenselves into what the poor people of Thailand have to do, and mostly not out of choice. Like I am choosing LoSo over HiSo.

But there are many complex reasons, and I don't really expect her to understand. Thais don't normally think big, and that sometimes creates a barrier of understanding.

Protecting democracy?

My FIL and I suspect many other people can testify to this. Was paid Bt300 for every PT vote from his household.

This is the standard of democracy here.

You couldn't make it up.

When are they all gonna grow up and stop playing these stupid games and actually start governing this country properly and fairly?

Because enough evidence exists to suggest that monkeys are incapable of governing a country, however they are more than capable of fighting with other monkeys.

It's all horses for courses really.

Hmmm... Invincible?

No real need to pay him for the tattoo then.

Last year we heard of 15 rai available for rent. We were interested in it for sugar cane and enquired about the price. 150,000 baht for 3 years, ie. 3,333 baht per rai p.a. This is in Korat.

We have some we are renting, 38rai for 14,000 baht a year, and 28 rai at 10,000 baht a year,those rents keep well away.

Is it a returnable rent?they give you the 150,000 back on return of the land.

Ones we have are just a yearly fee.

Yesterday we went over to Pak Thong Chai only 45 minutes drive from my home where 47 rai was up for rent, they quoted us Bt500/rai per year, when we got there it had been sanded over in preparation for building. even grass wasn't able to grow there.

May have had their application to build rejected or something, or maybe they simply can't get the cash to build.

Had a rai of pond full of water though which was bang on the land, not sure the depth. The place might do ok with pineapple though.

We have a contract with the sugar cane factory to supply 2000 tonnes, last year my tilac told me she got 32 and 38 tonne/rai on some, and this year a few of the farm's look very tightly packed and very high, so maybe on some we will get the 30 tonne/rai.

The 100 tonne/rai was achieved at the factory in controlled conditions and water supply, we would love to achieve 100 tonne/rai but alas soil here very dry, but we do get the latest seeds, and on saturday at the factory have been promised the latest seeds next year.

Good luck with your plans and please post updates on here.

Yes, it was totally controlled and expensive to get that tonnage. I will certainly post my step by step procedures on the experimental plots. The idea is to share the knowledge, not keep it to myself. Visiters are actually invited to tour the experimental facility and get a full action pack on how to do it. I will find time to go down there, I have already read a lot about the project they did, but nice to go and see them doing it.

32 and 38 tonnes/rai is a great yield, are you in Nakhon Sawan? I here 30 t/r around there is the norm without any effort, my wife says that if you don't get at least 30 t/r there, other will laugh at you.

I think we are getting closer to getting the land we need, and water is of the utmost importance to us. I doubt I will even try if we don't have plenty of H2O for the entire dry season, water is key to weight. I have a bit of a design formed in my mind of a portable irrigation system that can be deployed, retracted and re-deployed..... and no, it isn't a fire engine.

I don't know much about sugar cane, but I am told that one has to have a contract with the local sugar mill in order to sell the cane. This is unlike cassava, which one can plant and sell when ever one wants to sell, dependent on price. That is why one sees cassava every where in northeast Thailand but only see sugar cane in certain areas in close proximity to sugar mills. I suggest you check out the markets before deciding on planting sugar cane.

Spot on. was at the sugar cane factory registration on saturday up near chumpae, there was hundreds registering and just as many new registering as regulars,my girlfriend has been supplying there for 10years.

There is more than meets the eye sugar farming, has she has been teaching me, she gets the latest seeds, and gets around 20 tonnes per rai, you will not get much more than this believe me.

Yes, I know all this. I keep attempting to get readers to understand why I am doing this. It is to emulate a scientific experiment.

See here. from The Nation March 2010

http://www.nationmul...s-30125211.html

This year they managed to break the 100 tonne barrier from 1 Rai.

I have a good friend who is a botanst in the UK who works for The marquess of Northamptom who will be coming to add some of his expet knowledge and my wife's mother is a supervisor at the local government office for agricultural water uses as well as being a major centre for crop watering research. As a matter of fact, we were out and about today with some of the workers from the research facility to see different land and take samples etc.

The research centre where MIL works has 5 rai of sugar planted as well as casava, rice and a few other things, all for government research.

I have no intention of getting 103 tonnes a rai, but I want to try combinations of the 6 step experiment that led to that success. If I can get 30 tonnes with Bt10K per tonne investment gives a much better return that the norm. Its all a matter of ecconomics.

I agree, most people will never get more than 15 to 20 tonnes per rai, lots will get even less. But that is a matter of attitude and not one of inability.