Govt to help farmers grow 26m rai of income generating trees

[Ossy]

5 hours ago, VincentRJ said:

Excellent point, which is also a part of the Permaculture ideal, where plant types next to each other are selected on the basis that they compete less for specific nutrients.

 

Maybe this idea to grow trees is also linked to concerns about climate change and rising CO2 levels. CO2 can be considered as an asset because it encourages plant growth. The more CO2 the better, from a tree's perspective, up to a certain point of course.

 

New forests in particular take up lots of CO2 as they grow, but as they mature, that take-up slows down. When the trees are cut down for the timber, the carbon, in a sense, is sequestered, then the newly planted trees begin again to take up more CO2.

All valid points, V. Have you considered notifying the Ministry of your background knowledge that could, over 10yrs, save them a fortune? Don't mention Permaculture, though . . . you'll be directed to the hair studio, next door.

[Vacuum]

1 minute ago, Cadbury said:

Bad guess Vacuous one! Teak is 25 years to harvest time in the tropics. 

Yes, I'm not a tree farmer but I was thinking 60-70 cm trunk diameter. Anyway, they'll need someone to support them with Lao Khao and food during the waiting time.

[Cadbury]

7 hours ago, Eric Loh said:

Likely to be plantation teak which is not new.  Other exotics hardwood will take too long to grow to marketable size. As Ezzra said, farmers can’t generate income while the tree grow and land have to be sacrificed. More a dud idea and not carefully thought out. 

We are government and we are here to help you says the all knowing military agriculturalists. This grand idea for the benefit of farmers has come out of a government committee; enough said.

Agreed, teak is a likely tree to grow commercially as is Guadua bamboo. Eucalypts tend not to grow so well in the tropics and are better suited to colder climates where they "fatten" quickly. 

[Ossy]

12 minutes ago, Cadbury said:

Bad guess Vacuous one! Teak is 25 years to harvest time in the tropics. 

You tell him, Coco Pops. The missus and me are buying a few seedlings, just to practice with . . . from Amazon, too!

[Cadbury]

Just now, Ossy said:

You tell him, Coco Pops. The missus and me are buying a few seedlings, just to practice with . . . from Amazon, too!

Good idea. Suggest perhaps you use fertilizer sparingly to give them a quick spurt during early growth. Google should be able advise you accordingly.

[scorecard]

8 hours ago, zzaa09 said:

The ideals are quite decent.

Becoming dependent on a government body that has less than altruistic community tendencies behind their strategies should be looked upon with suspect.

Plus in the past there have been many schemes whereby government officials (with no knowledge or experience in this subject are) encouraged ordered farmers to grow various crops and trees on a big scale with negative results, sometimes resulting in massive debts for the farmers.

 

Eucalyptus trees just one example.

 

 

[KMartinHandyman]

Grow trees so you can get a loan.sounds like a great plan to get people off the poverty line.how about allow foreigners to own one rai that'll put some money into the poor people's pocket quicker than watching a tree grow so they can get themselves into debt and lose their land to the banks.

Yup,first person to nail the scheme. Every Thai able will be borrowing against as many seedling trees as they can get their hands on. Vote buying by another name.

[Srikcir]

10 hours ago, rooster59 said:

the Cabinet approved in principle a bill to amend the forestry laws to allow landowners to make decisions about protected trees residing on their lands without first seeking approval from forestry officials.

So much for protecting the forest.

[Srikcir]

10 hours ago, rooster59 said:

allow the use of trees with economic value on farmers’ lands as assets to guarantee loans.

Kenya did something similar last year signing into law a bill allowing borrowers to use household goods, crops, live animals and even intellectual property to secure commercial loans in a move aimed at boosting access to credit.

But it also established a centralized electronic registry for mobile assets that financial institutions can use to verify the security offered. This system was to assure that collateral cannot be easily be transferred between persons without the bank’s knowledge, leaving lenders exposed in the event of default.

https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/news/You-can-now-use-crops-livestock-for-bank-loans/539546-3922072-utft3uz/index.html

Thus far, it seems the Thai government hasn't addressed needs to prevent abuse or corruption on the use of trees as bank collateral.

 

[rebo]

2 hours ago, Cadbury said:

Bad guess Vacuous one! Teak is 25 years to harvest time in the tropics.

You're right. Of course teak can be harvested after 25 years. And it is for commercial purpose.
But what do you get? Wood hardly more useful than pine wood of less age.
With 25 years teak is just in the growth phase of slowly starting production of its important oil/rubber and other contents which will later make it so resistant against critters, acid, water and abrasion.
The only value of teak wood harvested after 25 years is that you can sell it to clueless western winter garden owners who think "Wow --- Teak! Will make my neighbor jealous ...".
Precious teak wood has at least 50 years of age, better 100 or more.
Harvesting valuable teak trees is not a question of the planter's generation ...

[zzaa09]

11 hours ago, ezzra said:

But what will the farmers do while they wait for the trees to grow if they use big portion of their land for the trees?....

They'll continue to work the usual things under the benevolent auspices and control of the government/aggie mafias. 

Same as it ever was.  

[Cadbury]

2 hours ago, rebo said:

You're right. Of course teak can be harvested after 25 years. And it is for commercial purpose.
But what do you get? Wood hardly more useful than pine wood of less age.
With 25 years teak is just in the growth phase of slowly starting production of its important oil/rubber and other contents which will later make it so resistant against critters, acid, water and abrasion.
The only value of teak wood harvested after 25 years is that you can sell it to clueless western winter garden owners who think "Wow --- Teak! Will make my neighbor jealous ...".
Precious teak wood has at least 50 years of age, better 100 or more.
Harvesting valuable teak trees is not a question of the planter's generation ...

You are quite right. It is age that determines the quality of the wood. Commercial teak, 35 years, high quality teak 50+ years. I can just see the Thai farmers after having invested enormously and waiting 25-50 years for a return on their investment.

Buffoons of this government are on cloud nine. Military governments are not connected with reality.

[Nyezhov]

8 hours ago, marko kok prong said:

If they included and legalised Mary jane that really would be great.

Legal weed in the USA runs $20 a gram with taxes, so figure a retail price of$15. That means a kilo retails for $15,000. Wholesale from the farm is running less than $10.  Lot of farmers would be pulled out of poverty if they could sell legal weed for export. Lots of stoners in the US would be happy too.

[zzaa09]

2 hours ago, Cadbury said:

You are quite right. It is age that determines the quality of the wood. Commercial teak, 35 years, high quality teak 50+ years. I can just see the Thai farmers after having invested enormously and waiting 25-50 years for a return on their investment.

Buffoons of this government are on cloud nine. Military governments are not connected with reality.

One might add that governments, universally speaking, are not connected with reality. 

[Lowryderen]

And just what is meant by revenue producing?

"The government will provide support to farmers to grow revenue-producing trees on their lands, said Agriculture Minister Surasak Karnjanarat on Saturday."

 

I mean.. Just now, and for some time, there has been handed out subsidies for cutting down rubber trees. Several in my area have gotten a fair amount of money, to have their rubber tree fields cut down, and converting the area to for example a grass field with cows. Between 10.000 and 30.000 per rai depending on the size of the trees.

Okay, rubber prices have been really low for a long time, but it is revenue-producing.. Although this scheme does not seem to help one bit for the price of rubber to go up.

 

But is it not counter productive to at the same time try to motivate people into growing "revenue-producing" trees, and also pay them to cut them down?

Edited September 9, 2018 by Lowryderen