subsidies for rice farm irrigation available?

[khwaibah]

29 minutes ago, notrub said:

Does this mean we can apply for and get a free borehole and solar panels and pump from the government? 

No. If you have your Thai partner do some research they may find a local organization that can assist. I have seen that in my area but as for Bangkok they could care less.

[IsaanAussie]

Midnight shoppers, don't you love 'em? Best story I have heard is a farang built a steel framed wire mesh "pump shed" that securely housed his generator, pumps, hoses and tractor implements out on his remote farm. He arrived one morning to find the lot gone, including the shed, which had been cut neatly off at the concrete floor. 

[IsaanAussie]

Just now, cooked said:

I'm wondering if we could use the heavy soil that we have to cultivate fodder/pasture instead of rice on maybe half the area, and the mention of wells as a source is interesting.

Wells and bores have a limited volume that can be delivered constantly. I am thinking of sinking a shaft of concrete rings in the bottom of our main pond (which is currently dry with the lowered ground water table and no rain). The idea being to build that shaft up above the pond full level and using the water to slowly fill the pond and as a source of water in drought for the garden. 

[khwaibah]

Neighbor of ours who is helping out on the wife project has been working on his property just across the canal from hers. He has what I joking call the Swine Flu Farm.???? He has been doing major upgrades to his side and one of them is his small pond. 15mx10mx10m deep. Water table at the spot 3 meters down. He just had a 2 inch done for 4.5k with this machine. They did go down 60 foot but as said water table is at 3 meters. He does have power as as it was done along with my wife BUT the bore is producing water by siphoning only. 24/7 no power cost. Slow but it works. At some point me boss will have this done at her site for domestic use.

 

His pond is just to the left of the machine.

 

Look at the center of the photo and you see a blue pvc and just to its left you can see water flowing out.

 

[JungleBiker]

On 7/10/2019 at 8:41 AM, notrub said:

 I pay about 12,000 baht total to plough the fields (2x)   

 

Google Conservation Agriculture and zero tillage (or no tillage). 

Eliminate the ploughing cost and save water. 

Use a zero till seed drill. 

Also add in Controlled Traffic Farming. 

Look at permanent raised beds.

Reduce costs, raise yields, increase profit.  

 

 

 

 

[IsaanAussie]

5 hours ago, JungleBiker said:

 

Google Conservation Agriculture and zero tillage (or no tillage). 

Eliminate the ploughing cost and save water. 

Use a zero till seed drill. 

Also add in Controlled Traffic Farming. 

Look at permanent raised beds.

Reduce costs, raise yields, increase profit.  

JB, mate if you can make that work here in Sisaket I.ll give you a job for life. I wish is was possible but not so far is 11 years. The best practice I can quote around me is a farang that farms organically but he uses the term "deep ploughing". 

[kickstart]

6 hours ago, IsaanAussie said:

JB, mate if you can make that work here in Sisaket I.ll give you a job for life. I wish is was possible but not so far is 11 years. The best practice I can quote around me is a farang that farms organically but he uses the term "deep ploughing". 

My wife said she was sowing rice in to a ploughed dry seed bed and waiting for the rains 30 years ago ,OK yields will be lower ,so will costs ,you said central plains farmers can in a good year get 3 crops a year (but,not this year ).

For them it is high inputs  can give you high profits ,like low imputes will give you low profits ,but the bottom line figure is very offtern   the same 

With this year being another hot almost drought year ,(most of the corn crops in my area have been ploughed in no rain,or this caterpillars has eaten the crop ), rice fields are still dry ,the climate is changing it may be dry land rice planting/drilling will become the norm?

[IsaanAussie]

The answer will be based on water availability. Nothing grows without it. Nor can you prepare the ground without soil moisture.

Currently most rice here is broadcast by hand. Using a seed drill reduces the amount of seed needed by some 60-70% and is more efficient. I agree it will become the norm when the moisture issue is solved. 

Rama IX's 30%,30%,30%,10% land use theory is the map I will use but of course 30% of the land used for water storage is only effective if you have the water (rain). Using ground water can only be a temporary source under drought conditions. 

If the change in weather is permanent and rain is scarce, then the area of rice must be reduced. The traditional methods use too much water and will have to be adapted to suit with water conservation being paramount. There are trials going on where rice is drilled through a mulch layer which prevents weeds and evaporation losses. Part of that trial involves planting nitrogen fixers like beans with the rice instead of mulching. 

Labour shortage have already changed us to more mechanised methods. 

The future is unsure but it will be different.

[notrub]

OK, I'll bite.  Where can I find seed drilling equipment here in Thailand?  I found some hand held devices on Alibaba including one offer that has a film clip.  https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/super-no-till-hand-direct-drill_60839351895.html?spm=a2700.7724857.normalList.32.2403472eIMTpy1

 

Pretty funny but I don't know how that would work out by the 1,000 M2.  

 

Converting the 5HA to some other farming method would be a gargantuan task but possibly dwarfed by the effort needed to convince the family to change their ways.

 

I think we will do a trial patch next year if i can find a seed drilling device and go from there.

 

What about the post from Jimmyyy regarding boreholes and solar panels to be provided by the government?

 

Thanks

 

 

[khwaibah]

4 minutes ago, notrub said:

What about the post from Jimmyyy regarding boreholes and solar panels to be provided by the government?

Post 31 has the answer for boreholes and panels. 

[khwaibah]

I'm located in Surin and my wife is very involved with all community projects especially backed by the DLS&DOA along with other groups. About 6 years back some local organizations with the help of PEA did have a very short lived program of solar panels and solar pumps but no well. That program went by the wayside. I wish but have never heard or seen of any program by the Thai government of the kind of assistance that is being asked about. The lack of rain is now getting to be a catastrophe for the lower isaan area. Korat, Buriram, Surin, Sisaket. The farmers are going to take it where the moon does not shine this year and we have not seen or heard of any help from Bangkok. 60 km north of me is the city of Mueang Surin population of about 50k. Just to the south of  town is their main water source for all domestic and agriculture. The authorities are saying maybe  and that's maybe they have two months supply of water left in the Huai Saneng Reservoir. They are dredging channels to the pump house to get that last drop. This video was just done two days back.

 

 

[farmerjo]

13 hours ago, IsaanAussie said:

The answer will be based on water availability. Nothing grows without it. Nor can you prepare the ground without soil moisture.

Currently most rice here is broadcast by hand. Using a seed drill reduces the amount of seed needed by some 60-70% and is more efficient. I agree it will become the norm when the moisture issue is solved. 

Rama IX's 30%,30%,30%,10% land use theory is the map I will use but of course 30% of the land used for water storage is only effective if you have the water (rain). Using ground water can only be a temporary source under drought conditions. 

If the change in weather is permanent and rain is scarce, then the area of rice must be reduced. The traditional methods use too much water and will have to be adapted to suit with water conservation being paramount. There are trials going on where rice is drilled through a mulch layer which prevents weeds and evaporation losses. Part of that trial involves planting nitrogen fixers like beans with the rice instead of mulching. 

Labour shortage have already changed us to more mechanised methods. 

The future is unsure but it will be different.

Good comment about the mulch,although this land will be used for sunn hemp,dry land rice remains a possibility in the future.Took 2 days to do 70 rai with the 6610 and 6 foot slasher but plenty of coverage on the surface maintaining sub soil moisture so ready to spray roundup and seed when i feel the times right to seed.

This was done 2 days ago with last rains of 33mm on 2nd and 3rd of this month.

The weeds cut were approx 2-3 feet tall.

 

[kickstart]

8 hours ago, notrub said:

OK, I'll bite.  Where can I find seed drilling equipment here in Thailand?  I found some hand held devices on Alibaba including one offer that has a film clip.  https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/super-no-till-hand-direct-drill_60839351895.html?spm=a2700.7724857.normalList.32.2403472eIMTpy1

 

Pretty funny but I don't know how that would work out by the 1,000 M2.  

 

Converting the 5HA to some other farming method would be a gargantuan task but possibly dwarfed by the effort needed to convince the family to change their ways.

 

I think we will do a trial patch next year if i can find a seed drilling device and go from there.

 

What about the post from Jimmyyy regarding boreholes and solar panels to be provided by the government?

 

Thanks

 

 

Have a look at TV,s thread on rice planting opinions some useful posts ,the Kidd drills are made near me in Saraburi province,plenty of other makes about . 

[notrub]

OK, I'll bite.  Where can I find seed drilling equipment here in Thailand?  I found some hand held devices on Alibaba including one offer that has a film clip.  https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/super-no-till-hand-direct-drill_60839351895.html?spm=a2700.7724857.normalList.32.2403472eIMTpy1

 

Pretty funny but I don't know how that would work out by the 1,000 M2.  

 

Converting the 5HA to some other farming method would be a gargantuan task but possibly dwarfed by the effort needed to convince the family to change their ways.

 

I think we will do a trial patch next year if i can find a seed drilling device and go from there.

 

What about the post from Jimmyyy regarding boreholes and solar panels to be provided by the government?

 

Thanks

 

 

[notrub]

So I followed threads and got to a reference to the KIDD seed drill manufacturing, saw the pictures and cannot find the reference again.  Please help with that as I cannot find them listed on google.

 

Using a seed drill would it be that we just flatten out the fields then plant with a seed drill implement?   Following field preparation would the planting be 3 or 4 days with a smaller machine?  We have about 25 rai in total.

 

Will we have to drip feed irrigate?  Any thoughts on cost per rai for the pipe?  We have a couple of ponds and suppose that we could hook up a solar 12V pump to feed the irrigation setup.

 

We don't have a tractor but there are plenty around here.  Year two, following a successful effort with a seed drill we might be able to rent it out, who knows?

 

In our family there is no debt so a year without a rice crop just means less to eat that is homegrown.  There is lots of rice to buy in Isaan without going to Lotus Tesco.

 

The family have been going through this cycle for over 50 years so changing things will be a challenge.  Is it worth it?  We don't depend on the harvest to live but it would be nice to get it all working a little bit better and a bit more predictable too. 

 

Thanks in advance for any comments

 

 

[farmerjo]

Kidd seed drills can be found at many ag dealers through the north-east.

I looked at one the other day in Chumphae,similar to the one in picture but with a full length fertilizer box(not two smaller ones) 85,000 baht.