2 hours ago, IsaanAussie said:

Well Dr T, little wonder that people who make a living supplying services may see their fees diminish if they supply real answers. Or they lack the confidence to define a prescription solution.

Your words, sounds like a judgement to me of you saying your right and their wrong. But its okay i understand when people feel their way is the only way.

5 hours ago, Notagain said:

Your words, sounds like a judgement to me of you saying your right and their wrong. But its okay i understand when people feel their way is the only way.

Say what?  Where do you get that interpretation?  

Thank you so much for allowing me to express my opinion which wasnt originally directed at you, but you seem to be upset about my opinion.

Flaming posts and replies to them have been removed.

 

Please keep it civil

Has anyone have any first hand knowledge of the Dr Soils program? Seems like LDD may be able to help with testing soils more than just the NPK and pH tests. Anyone tried approaching LDD?

 

For reference:  http://en.fftc.org.tw/htmlarea_file/library/20110718153311/eb533.pdf 

 

 

The ministry has drawn criticism from observers who charge, among other things, that, "The Agriculture Ministry has...become the mouthpiece for agro giants—and agricultural officials their salesmen." The criticism arises from Thailand's profligate use of farm chemicals. According to the World Bank, Thailand is the world's fifth largest user of farm chemicals, although its arable land ranks only 48th in the world. About 70 pesticides used in Thailand are banned in the West.^[7]

According to the Thai government's The Eleventh National Economic and Social Development Plan (2012-1016), Thailand is number one in the world in the application of chemicals in agriculture. The report stated, "The use of chemicals in the agricultural and industrial sectors is growing while control mechanisms are ineffective making Thailand rank first in the world in the use of registered chemicals in agriculture

Our farm is in Sisaket province which is predominately rice paddy with one rain fed crop per year. Our area shows all the signs of this over use of chemicals. The area under cultivation is reducing as are yields despite ever increased chemical usage. Last rice yield figures I saw for the province in 2015 were 550Kg/rai at best to averages down to 400Kg and below. 

Things need to change quickly and it appears that some major efforts are getting underway. Got to stay hopeful and do what we can.

Im just a guest like every other falang here so dont expect me to jump up and spend my time and money, especially when the welcome mat can be pulled out from underneath me at any time.

4 hours ago, IsaanAussie said:

Our farm is in Sisaket province which is predominately rice paddy with one rain fed crop per year. Our area shows all the signs of this over use of chemicals. The area under cultivation is reducing as are yields despite ever increased chemical usage. Last rice yield figures I saw for the province in 2015 were 550Kg/rai at best to averages down to 400Kg and below. 

Things need to change quickly and it appears that some major efforts are getting underway. Got to stay hopeful and do what we can.

Is it overuse of chemicals or soil fertility decreasing, we all know, Thai farmers only use NPK fertilizers, increasing soil fertility especially organic matter is way down on the list.

About 3 years ago TV member Faermerjo tested his soil, he farms near Khon Khan, and published the results here on TV, looking at the results the bottom line should say RIP soil, it was dead. regarding nutrients, and especially trace elements, very few nutrients left 

You're self and Dr. T know more about soil fertility than me, I look at the basics  Notagain said: "Thais like to just put a match to they waste material ie rice, straw, and lie back in a hammock all day ".

Twenty years ago the UK banned the burn, stopped farmers burning there  stubble fields, they said what do we do with the combined straw, machinery manufacturers  were quick off the mark, combines had shredder/spreaders fitted,  they chopped straw into 3-4 inch lengths, and spread the staw about, then a machine comes along with discs and spring tines and incorporates  the staw in to the soil ,farmers found within  2-3 years soil fertility increased.

Now, here in Thailand, straw could be incorporated in to the soil, but how?, ploughing in the straw and incorporating are two different things a 3 disc plough will just bury the straw in big lumps that will take ages to rot down ,  the way Thai's plough it will be so deep any nutrients  will be out of reach of the plants .

If they were a machine,  it would take some pulling, one guy in an area could contract himself out, the guy doing the job would want 350-400 baht /rie , about the same price as a 3 disc plough multiply that by say 25 rie an average farm size, no one would use your incorporating machine ,they would say too expensive, margins are not just they, back to square one, not yet thought about a shredder/spreader  fitted to the combine.not an easy answer to this one .

In the UK they use to say, a good burn was worth 10GBP/ acre, in killing any leftover diseases and pests, and the Pand K from the ash was then incorporated back into the soil.

Green manure is the way, a crop of mung beans or sun hemp is grown just after the rice harvest, they should be enough moisture in the soil, then ploughed in would be the way to go.

Hi KS,

Thanks for your input. It really sums up the situation and need for action. 

In our case the "soil" we have is only what is left having suffered erosion for years. When I got started there were trees growing on our land. Each one on top of a pad higher than the paddy. Rice harvesting used these elevated pads to get the hand cut rice out of the water and as somewhere shady to rest. The shade was also a factor in the patchy yield of rice which was only about 300kg/rai at the time. Bringing in the tractor into this obstacle course was the principle reason I decided to clear the trees and get the paddies as flat as possible. It didnt occur to me that these "pads" where in fact the only soil left and the rest had blown or floated away. 

So with trees gone and soil spread over the clay "brick pit" we had a first rice harvest of around 600kg/rai. The fertiliser use remained pretty much the same. Gradually over the next few years the harvest decreased slightly each year. 

Obviously the small amount of "living Soil" added to the rice area had made a difference. But it was not a permanent fix. 

In addition to the subject course of study in my original post, here is another positive movement:
 
https://www.gofundme.com/worlds-most-nutritious-food
 
CLW, this is the funding I was trying to hook you up with for your masters program research project. 

Thanks. I will look into it.

This graph was produced by NutriTech, the course provider originally mentioned. They do soil and plant tests, this graph produced after tissue testing. Ultimately to "know" what is needed for not only yields but nutritional value this is the level we need. A long way from the basic NPK test.