Sugar cane farmer: Burning is necessary - Go ahead "jail us all!"

[webfact]

Sugar cane farmer: Burning is necessary - Go ahead "jail us all!"

 

Thai caption: Sugar cane burning is necessary

Picture: 77kaoded

 

An angry sugar cane farmer in the east of Thailand has hit out at being singled out and blamed for the 2.5 PM smog crisis. 

 

Bamphen Napha who has 1,000 rai in Sa Kaeo province said that sugar cane farmers were in the dock and were being blamed for crimes against society and the country, reported 77kaoded.

 

He said he faced going to jail for years and the punishment would be worse than being accused of theft. 

 

He claimed that burning the remnants of crops was an economic necessity. 

 

It has been reported elsewhere that farmers would have to lose 30-40% of their income if they are forced to pay workers to cut down old stems rather than simply burn them - a much cheaper option. 

 

Picture: 77kaoded

 

Bamphen said that if he is prosecuted he wants to see all sugar cane growers all over the country thrown in jail. 

 

The prisons will be full, he warned.

 

He said he is seriously considering abandoning sugar cane, a crop he has grown in the province for 30 years before the sugar mills even came. 

 

The Thai media said that 2.5 PM levels in Sa Kaeo were the worst in the east of Thailand. 

 

A local agricultural organization has reported some success in limiting the burning but the problem persists. 

 

Source: 77kaoded

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2020-01-23

Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking Thailand news and visa info

[ThreeEyedRaven]

And his attitude sums up the problem completely. He is utterly ignorant of the combined pollution he and his fellow farmers produce. To save some money he is happy to watch everyone elses health suffer. If he doesn't want to cut the old plants down, he should do what he suggests and grow something else.

[4MyEgo]

You just can't help stupid can you.....off to jail for a long time, set an example, that might help the other stupids ?

[thequietman]

And there you have it folks.

 

Absolutely no fear of the laws of the land. This applies to the whole population bar none.

 

There is no hope! ????

[dyertribe]

you will note that the cane is burnt before it's harvested (see the image) and it's to clear out the matted lower growth (and snakes).  It is not to burn the residue.

 

This is not necessary when it's machine harvested, but when cut by hand it is ...

 

The solution ... create a pool of harvesters that can be cheaply hired by the farmers and find new jobs for the cane cutters.

[YetAnother]

18 minutes ago, webfact said:

and were being blamed for crimes against society

pure thai, me first and the heck with everyone else

[Bassosa]

2 minutes ago, dyertribe said:

you will note that the cane is burnt before it's harvested (see the image) and it's to clear out the matted lower growth (and snakes).  It is not to burn the residue.

 

This is not necessary when it's machine harvested, but when cut by hand it is ...

 

The solution ... create a pool of harvesters that can be cheaply hired by the farmers and find new jobs for the cane cutters.

I read somewhere that this was tried, but no one took responsibility for the maintenance of the shared equipment. 

I didn't realise until this year that Thais are not the most gifted farmers. Disappointing.

[ThomasThBKK]

Good idea, fill the prisons, and let the ones who did less crime like smoking weed out of there instead.

[Dumbastheycome]

If it is a question of economics to farmers such as he with 1000 rai a cane harvester should be  his priority.

If his retaliation to that argument is  "what about the poor  cane cutters" his sympathy is  false due to the fact he is poisoning them when they sleep and and when they are drenched in  carbon as they work !

Another reality is that it is not so easy to get people  to do this work now anyway.

[KhunBENQ]

6 minutes ago, dyertribe said:

The solution ... create a pool of harvesters that can be cheaply hired by the farmers and find new jobs for the cane cutters.

Boring. Better some nice new tools for the generals.

 

[GarryP]

2 minutes ago, Bassosa said:

I read somewhere that this was tried, but no one took responsibility for the maintenance of the shared equipment. 

I didn't realise until this year that Thais are not the most gifted farmers. Disappointing.

Actually there is increased use of cane harvesters. Unfortunately, nowhere near enough. 

[Bassosa]

This individuals profit/money is more important than the general public and their health.

Think about that...

[thequietman]

24 minutes ago, dyertribe said:

you will note that the cane is burnt before it's harvested (see the image) and it's to clear out the matted lower growth (and snakes).  It is not to burn the residue.

 

This is not necessary when it's machine harvested, but when cut by hand it is ...

 

The solution ... create a pool of harvesters that can be cheaply hired by the farmers and find new jobs for the cane cutters.

But they need money for submarines and the like.

 

National securitaaaaaay, don't ye know. ????

[URMySunshine]

Ok then easy answer jail them all - I think Thailand can cope with having less processed sugar. And they have stolen Thailand's 'clean air' so they are stealing from the people and big. 

[KevinCorr]

Fire fighting like the rest of the world does with wild fires. Don't ask, just attack the fires aggressively. 

[GeorgeCross]

52 minutes ago, webfact said:

He said he faced going to jail for years and the punishment would be worse than being accused of theft.

 

reported elsewhere that 10s of thousands die each year from PM2.5 related diseases.

 

he should be tried for genocide

 

 

[GeorgeCross]

35 minutes ago, ThomasThBKK said:

Good idea, fill the prisons, and let the ones who did less crime like smoking weed out of there instead.

 

and let them have the land to grow the traditional thai crop.. weed

 

more profitable and ecological ta boot

 

 

[URMySunshine]

Good we now have a real life walking , talking  scapegoat now let him be scaped. Good he put  his hand up and confessed. 

[thequietman]

39 minutes ago, Bassosa said:

I read somewhere that this was tried, but no one took responsibility for the maintenance of the shared equipment. 

I didn't realise until this year that Thais are not the most gifted farmers. Disappointing.

If it isn't all handed to them and done for them ........... they are just not interested. ????

[thequietman]

5 minutes ago, Matzzon said:

This is a MF stupid moron, that needs to go to jail for a long time. Only his disrespectful attitude to the law and the iones upholding it should be enough to punish him.

There is perfectly good ways to take care of this problem, that many other countries are dealing very well with, so he can take his poor excuses an push up his MF big ar5e!

Don't normally agree with anything that you say, but for this, a big, fat yes. ????

[URMySunshine]

Just now, thequietman said:

Don't normally agree with anything that you say, but for this, a big, fat yes. ????

I think one thing that nearly everyone Thai and farang can agree on now is.....

 

SORT OUT THE AGRO-INDUSTRY AIR POLLUTION CRISIS ...NOW

 

[CGW]

48 minutes ago, dyertribe said:

The solution ... create a pool of harvesters that can be cheaply hired by the farmers and find new jobs for the cane cutters.

The "government" stated last year they would be doing this! seems they forgot?

[Lloydyboy]

It's not only Thailand that burns the sugar cane before harvesting, it happens in Florida too, see here>

https://civileats.com/2019/07/15/burning-sugarcane-in-florida-is-making-people-sick-could-green-harvesting-change-the-game/

[billd766]

52 minutes ago, Bassosa said:

I read somewhere that this was tried, but no one took responsibility for the maintenance of the shared equipment. 

I didn't realise until this year that Thais are not the most gifted farmers. Disappointing.

A simple way of maintaining the equipment would be to send to each area a group of Army/Navy/Air Force mechanical engineers to keep the cane harvesters online. It should keep the harvesters working and also provide hands on training for when the leave the military.

[kelboy]

It's not just the sugar can farmers it's the rice farmers too.

Born stupid,look stupid and are stupid. 

[Farangwithaplan]

49 minutes ago, ThomasThBKK said:

Good idea, fill the prisons, and let the ones who did less crime like smoking weed out of there instead.

Ummm, but by smoking weed they were creating air pollution, too. They should stay there.

 

Look the guy might be ignorant to the greater issue of safe, clean air. But the guy and many like him just don't have the margins in geowing a crop where he gets screwed by the mills on price year after year. There should be a pro active solution by the government. They should give up on treating the effects with portable scrubbers and the like and get to the heart of the matter.

 

The Government need to develop a plan to assist these farmers in either cutting through the undergrowth economically or they need to assist them in moving to a new crop which isn't reliant on burning or manual / mechanical removal of undergrowth.

 

 

On a tangent, I once spoke to an electrical contractor who ran cables through the barriers of a walk bridge. By doing so, it menat people using the walk bridge would need to avoid the wires. I asked him why he did it, knowing that it would cause issues. He advised me that another contractor was meant to have moved the pole so it didn't cause the cables to foul on the bridge. The pole contractor didn't do his job properly.

 

So this contractor claimed he had no recourse. If he didn't install the cables, he wouldn't get paid, may have been in default and needed to pay. He also wouldn't have received future work. He claimed he had no way of advising that the pole was in the wrong location and therefore could not complete his job properly. I'm not sure if he was telling the whole truth, but there is certainly a disconnect. I asked a concretor once about a similar issue and I got a similar result.

 

I don't blame the farmer in this instance. I blame the government for letting the situation get to this state.

[URMySunshine]

5 minutes ago, billd766 said:

A simple way of maintaining the equipment would be to send to each area a group of Army/Navy/Air Force mechanical engineers to keep the cane harvesters online. It should keep the harvesters working and also provide hands on training for when the leave the military.

That would mean the 1750 generals (UK 85) losing their chauffeurs , cooks , cleaners , gardeners , bottle washers , medal polishers and doing something useful for a change. We can but hope common sense will prevail. 

 

Responding to criticism that the army is top-heavy, General Sir Nick Carter said that the total number of starred officers — brigadiers and generals — had been reduced by nearly 40 per cent, from 141 to 85, during the past five years.Dec 29, 2017

[ExpatOilWorker]

Just use the right equipment.

 

 

[CNXexpat]

If the first farmers will go to jail, the others will find a solution for not burning for sure.

[URMySunshine]

8 minutes ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

Just use the right equipment.

 

 

This has been discussed before.

 

https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/1127782-sugar-cane-machine-harvester-versus-burning-the-sugar-cane/

 

https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/1135540-ban-of-sugar-cane-burning-enforced-this-year-really/#comments