I've just found out that our son is currently studying agriculture after three years of wasted time studying electronics, of which he doesn't have a plan. The local college seems to be a place to keep the "kids" off the roads but educationally seen a waste of time.

 

    We live in Sisaket province and the farm of the parents in law is around 25 km away towards Surin. The soil is quite sandy and I've never seen other farmers having a second harvest, which could also be the lack of water.

 

Anyway, he's made his decision and with a bit of luck, he can go to New Zealand for a while to study all about animals, plants, machines that are needed on farms, which is a project his teacher came up with.

 

 Currently, they only grow white rice, the only other plant that brings a little bit of money is pepperonis, the little red and green ones.Some people in Kantharalak, 60 km away, and on the way to Cambodia, seem to be successful growing Durian and perhaps other fruits and veggies, but the soil is much better than the one here.

 

   A long time ago, having a lot of time on the farm, I was trying to grow potatoes, more a pilot project. They grew, but my wife took them out when they're very small.  I'm wondering what fruits and veggies would grow in a sandy soil?

 

   My apologies for the long story, but I thought it's useful to understand where I'm coming from. Farmers, please share the experiences you've made in Isaan, or somewhere else in Thailand. 

  

I was thinking about asparagus, potatoes, then perhaps buying some cows, but there's not enough food for them and buying food would not just be expensive, it would also be time-consuming.

 

  Any ideas on how to give him a good start? Thanks alot in advance. 

Best wishes for your son in his studies.  I recommend that he learn about soil improvement, which in my opinion is the heart of intelligent plant management.  Whether the soil is sandy, clayey or loamy, there is always room for improvement and that is best done with soil testing and prescribed amendments based on actual deficiencies found. 

 

Here's a link for some inspiration. http://www.symphonyofthesoil.com/

Get the full movie if you can, and you may inspire a state of the art modern organic agronomist. 

 

Also: www.soilminerals.com

 

 

Your son could go to NZ ,but farming they and farming here is like  chalk and cheese  very different,  a majority of  NZ farmers are dairy farmers big farms, some farms milking 500 cows, grass-based diet, also  a lot of sheep farmers  Thailand  has some cows average herd 15-20 cows feed concentrate and  rice straw ,and no sheep to speak of and NZ  farms do not use  a lot of machinery .

And what I have seen of Thai's that have been to agricultur collage for 3 years, well . I knew more after 1 year of day release as a lowly 17-year-old.

As drtreelove said to get the soil fertility sorted out, that sand land will be short of most minerals and trace elements, some green manure would help, have a look at TV's  Mazie and rotational crops thread some information they.

A lot has been written about potatoes, some grow a lot do not, with me have tried, did not grow to many diseases and bugs and too hot.

Fruit trees would work long-term project, makets can be very volatile, like this year been a glut of limes difficult to make money.

Farming whatever you do will not be easy if you have an idea Mr. Google will help you, and as this is Thailand there will be something on Thai  Facebook. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a very informative and interesting thread running on this forum called "Start A Mixed Farm in Isaan". The OP, Mr Kie, has tried/is trying various ideas on his holding in Isan, everything from growing different vegetables to keeping chickens.  

I think there is a lot of useful information on his thread which might help you or at least give you ideas as to what you could do with your land.