Smog from sugarcane burning is fading – just for now

[webfact]

Smog from sugarcane burning is fading – just for now

 

 

Smog from sugarcane burning may have faded, after sugarcane harvest season this year is about over. However, it does not mean the black smoke will disappear from the sky forever.

 

When the harvest season comes next year, farmers are likely to burn their sugarcane plantation again before harvesting. This is despite the Ministry of Industry’s aim to end sugarcane burning in three years.

 

From December to April during the sugarcane harvest season, Thai sugarcane growers burn sugarcane stalks before harvest to get rid of dried leaves.

 

Full story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/smog-from-sugarcane-burning-is-fading-just-for-now/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2019-05-01

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[AlexRich]

I wonder if most Thais are aware of just how damaging “burning season” is to their health and life expectancy? 

[Thailand]

All burnt I guess along with most of the forests, Chiangmai an unhealthy 135 this morning. P's pissing in the wind not exactly a huge success.

[edwinchester]

It's illegal to burn sugarcane in Thailand but not illegal for the processing factories to buy burnt sugarcane.

Make it illegal to process burnt sugarcane and the practice will disappear overnight.

[mikebell]

1 hour ago, AlexRich said:

I wonder if most Thais are aware of just how damaging “burning season” is to their health and life expectancy? 

They don't even know that marinating hunks of chicken in carbon monoxide by the side of the road is not a healthy option both for those who eat it and those who walk past.

[alant]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Thai sugarcane growers burn sugarcane stalks before harvest to get rid of dried leaves.

So basically these killers are bone idle???

[MartinKal]

It is a world-wide standard practise. Except that northern Thailand is heavily dependent on revenue from tourism. Chiang Mai has been widely cited across social media as the dirtiest city in the world. Publicity and talk on social media is recent and has caused much damage to Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai, and other tourist destinations.

How will these City dwellers, mostly ordinary folk, survive this loss of income? What alternative practices are available to large scale farmers, how will they invest in new practices, and how long would this change-over take to implement?

Edited May 1, 2019 by MartinKal
Punctuation

[johnny49r]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Smog from sugarcane burning is fading – just for now

Say what? Yesterday was one of the worst fires in our area and threatened nearby homes. Police were called and some off-duty cop made a brief obligatory appearance. The outcome was nil and I'm sure the great slash & burn will continue unabated.

[Chrisswe]

2 hours ago, edwinchester said:

It's illegal to burn sugarcane in Thailand but not illegal for the processing factories to buy burnt sugarcane.

Make it illegal to process burnt sugarcane and the practice will disappear overnight.

Money money money is the.........!!!!!

[canopy]

3 hours ago, edwinchester said:

Make it illegal to process burnt sugarcane and the practice will disappear overnight.

Unfortunately they already tried this in some areas and it didn't work. Despite this they are talking about widening this failed program. What happened is the farmers harvested and sold green cane that had not been burnt, great. But they then immediately went back out to their fields and burned them to a crisp as usual smoking everyone out. The key to solving this is understanding farmers don't burn their stuff because they need to, but because they get like to. Until that understanding is made, solutions may miss the mark and not work.

 

[Chicken George]

Choking in Chiang Rai and will likely hit a high of aqi 500 this evening for possible the next six weeks. No rain of any worth forecast. El Nino affect likeky to last till November. So a drought hapoening now as well.  easier to burn again next year!

[Dek Somboon]

SOLUTION: Burn all the Thai farmers who burn, and convert all unemployed university graduates to farming. It may take a while, but at least you can expect at least half a brain from them...

[connda]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

Smog from sugarcane burning may have faded, after sugarcane harvest season this year is about over. However, it does not mean the black smoke will disappear from the sky forever.

Another reoccurring, annual problem that has major consequences to the health of the nation (while multi-national corporations profit).  The government will do naught as their corporate masters require unregulated burning - anything else cuts into their profits.  Same for corn in the mountains of the North and any other ag crops where unregulated burning is more cost effective, than say, buy the equipment and manpower to till the fields under.  Never happen.  Farmers have carte blanc to burn, so burn they will..... ad-infinitum.  

[edwinchester]

2 hours ago, canopy said:

Unfortunately they already tried this in some areas and it didn't work. Despite this they are talking about widening this failed program. What happened is the farmers harvested and sold green cane that had not been burnt, great. But they then immediately went back out to their fields and burned them to a crisp as usual smoking everyone out. The key to solving this is understanding farmers don't burn their stuff because they need to, but because they get like to. Until that understanding is made, solutions may miss the mark and not work.

 

Attitudes are changing albeit slowly.

One of wifeys friends farms sugarcane and doesn't burn because she makes more money and doesn't understand why other don't follow suit.

This year she was very upset though as for some reason her crop went up in flames the day before it was to be cut.

The suspicion was that the cutting crew wanted to do a quicker job, more money as they can move to the next job sooner, and torched it themselves.

[PETERTHEEATER]

9 hours ago, edwinchester said:

It's illegal to burn sugarcane in Thailand but not illegal for the processing factories to buy burnt sugarcane.

Make it illegal to process burnt sugarcane and the practice will disappear overnight.

Make it illegal to process burnt sugarcane and the practice will disappear overnight.

 

No, the practice will continue in the night as burnt sugarcane is delivered to the factories under cover of darkness????

[spidermike007]

Sugar cane seems to be one of the great scourges of this nation. Perhaps one day, the people, the government and the farmers will wake up to that fact? There are so many alternative crops, that are not so damaging to the population. The burning seems to go on for months, and months. There have to be alternatives. 

[canopy]

It doesn't seem to matter what they plant because they will burn it: corn, rice, sugar cane, you name it. They burn it. In my area they are into hydroponics. The plastic fires of the worn out sheeting, plastic pipes, and foam boxes is awful. Everything is burnt.

 

[CGW]

21 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Sugar cane seems to be one of the great scourges of this nation. Perhaps one day, the people, the government and the farmers will wake up to that fact? There are so many alternative crops, that are not so damaging to the population. The burning seems to go on for months, and months. There have to be alternatives. 

The "government" has been promoting suagar cane as a great alternative to growing rice with subsidies and cash payouts to start to grow! Most likely one of the reasons they keep silent when farmers burn! Problem is they are trying to farm land that should be left alone!

[30la]

Burning the sugar cane is only the first step, certainly very harmful to the environment, the worst comes with processing in the sugar factory.
Most of the factories do not have any discharge filters, throughout the year there are 2.5 very harmful particles emissions. During the so-called season (December - April), you have 24/7: a disgusting smell, noise like near an airport, very dirty and very dangerous roads (hundreds of trucks), increased waste along the roads caused by drivers, and finally, there are not enough toilets, as a result, many drivers make their needs in the private gardens of the inhabitants near the factory.
BEAUTIFUL, OR NO?

[dcnx]

On 4/30/2019 at 6:29 PM, edwinchester said:

It's illegal to burn sugarcane in Thailand but not illegal for the processing factories to buy burnt sugarcane.

Make it illegal to process burnt sugarcane and the practice will disappear overnight.

That won’t change a thing. Unless there is a police force willing to actually arrest someone and a court that will convict them, it’s all just words on paper.

[DrTuner]

Ah they turned off the diesels up north too. Since that according to TVF climate experts was the leading cause of smog.

Edited May 2, 2019 by DrTuner

[DrTuner]

1 hour ago, 30la said:

Burning the sugar cane is only the first step, certainly very harmful to the environment, the worst comes with processing in the sugar factory.
Most of the factories do not have any discharge filters, throughout the year there are 2.5 very harmful particles emissions. During the so-called season (December - April), you have 24/7: a disgusting smell, noise like near an airport, very dirty and very dangerous roads (hundreds of trucks), increased waste along the roads caused by drivers, and finally, there are not enough toilets, as a result, many drivers make their needs in the private gardens of the inhabitants near the factory.
BEAUTIFUL, OR NO?

TiT, path of least resistance onwards to the easy baht. Damned be anything else.

[DrTuner]

On 5/1/2019 at 6:42 AM, mikebell said:

They don't even know that marinating hunks of chicken in carbon monoxide by the side of the road is not a healthy option both for those who eat it and those who walk past.

Carbon Monixide is heavier than air. Do they marinate their chickens in ground pits up there?

[kickstart]

On 5/1/2019 at 3:58 PM, spidermike007 said:

Sugar cane seems to be one of the great scourges of this nation. Perhaps one day, the people, the government and the farmers will wake up to that fact? There are so many alternative crops, that are not so damaging to the population. The burning seems to go on for months, and months. There have to be alternatives. 

What no one has said yet, sugar cane has another big use, it is used to power your cars and motorbikes, the molasses, a by-product of sugar cane, is fermented down to make ethanol alcohol, which then goes on to make gasohol, cassava is also used to make ethanol alcohol,

So, with world crude oil prices going up the government will try and cut down on expensive crude oil imports, biofuels are the way  

Our local sugar mill now makes its own ethanol alcohol, a lot better than before when old smoking, overloaded trucks loaded with molasses going down to Bangkok for processing.

As for alternatives, what would you put in your tea instead of sugar, Thailand cannot grow sugar beet, a root crop, far to hot, or back to the 1950s when sorghum was used, pre-sugar cane.

One thing the Op's prices are a bit OTT, an imported second-hand cane harvester, cost about 3 million baht, we have a lot in this area, and does the OP think a bank would loan a farmer 6-12 million baht to buy a machine ,I do not think so ,and around here it costs a farmer 350 baht /ton to cut and haul cane to the mill, with cane prices at 800 baht /ton, not a lot left, by the time other expenses are taken out.

With more machine cutting this year, we have had a lot less burning than before with cutters getting more difficult to find machine cutting will increase, and burning will decrease ...............but when I do not know. 

[kevvy]

Come on to Chiang Rai , no fading here it is this the bloody same , 7 days ... yeah right!!!!

[mikebell]

18 hours ago, DrTuner said:

Carbon Monixide is heavier than air. Do they marinate their chickens in ground pits up there?

Heat rises; as the smoke cools, it falls downwards where passers-by inhale it.