We live in a rural area and the wifey has just been to a village meeting .

She has come back and said that anybody who wants to buy and or use weed killer has to have a license.

We use a bit of grass killer around the house basically to stop encroachment , but the village has been told any body who wants to buy weed/grass killer has to go on a course to learn how to handle it when you buy it. 

After you have your " license " to buy it , she needs to go on a 3 hour course on how to use / apply it . 

Nobody from the end of this month can buy or use weed killer without a " license " .

Penalty 6,000 baht.

Apparently this is a nationwide directive.

Anybody else come across this ?

 

Weed is illegal in Thailand, so I'm surprised a weed killer is subject to regulation.

This was only in the news a few days ago. Looks like your local government has rushed to get aboard. I live in an area of farms and plantations and so far this hasn't been implemented. When I heard the proposition I assumed it was unworkable because of the vast number of people using weed killers and the huge number of shops selling it. Looks like your district is at the front of the campaign. have you tried stopping off and buying some in a shop off the highway?

 

They should regulate the sell of rope used for hangings...and charcoal crocks used for suicide in autos...might save more lives...

I wonder if they accept an overseas certification,if not the local shop won't knock back the business.

Unless he needs to do the course to sell it....

the strong household disinfectant from Home Pro seems to do the job quite well.  Spray half a dozen times over a couple of days, with a diluted half half with water mixture, and they don't seem to come back.  You don't need a licence for household disinfectant. 

This is a very positive move. The area around us is all rainfed rice paddies. It all gets sprayed with serious herbicide prior to ploughing and most again after seeding with pre-emergent herbicide. If undertaken by the village or Tambon officials the training and control of users would be easy. We have 3 or 4 guys that currently do the spraying for the whole community and they are pretty careful. Previously some people that did it became badly affected with one or two deaths supposedly as a consequence. Big tick from me.

On 7/5/2019 at 7:03 PM, IsaanAussie said:

This is a very positive move. The area around us is all rainfed rice paddies. It all gets sprayed with serious herbicide prior to ploughing and most again after seeding with pre-emergent herbicide. If undertaken by the village or Tambon officials the training and control of users would be easy. We have 3 or 4 guys that currently do the spraying for the whole community and they are pretty careful. Previously some people that did it became badly affected with one or two deaths supposedly as a consequence. Big tick from me.

Careful about what? Product selection, application rates, spray drift, applicator safety, personal protective equipment, re-entry intervals, environmental contamination?  Chemical resistant shorts and flip-flops? Respirators for the kids that tag along while dads are spraying the fields. 

 

Pre-emergent herbicides are the primary pesticide contaminant for waterways and ground water. So no matter how "careful" they are with other aspects, the use of pre-emergents is a danger for the community and all life downstream. Also, some herbicides like glyphosate if overused can alter soil chemistry and things like calcium absorption, setting off a whole chain of nutrient imbalance and more and more chemical use. 

 

I'm in the US right now and because of immense growing public pressure against hard chemistry herbicide use, especially RoundUp, we are using more organic program compatible herbicidal soap.  It's not systemic/translocatable into root systems, but it does a good job of burn down and short term control, and it biodegrades and is not persistent in the environment. 

 

IMO the farmer training, instead of focusing on and legitimizing the dubious safe use of toxic chemistries, should address education for Integrated Vegetation Management and alternative methods and materials. Deaths from herbicide exposure is extreme. The kind of chemistry that could cause that is not even needed for effective weed management. 

My use of the word "careful" seems to have ruffled some feathers. Please understand it is used in the local context here. I completely agree that there needs to be alternatives found but as of today, here in Isaan, those alternatives simply are not available. The training being undertaken is targeted at limiting the damage potential by ensuring best practice is adopted.