Where to learn modern farming

[THAIPHUKET]

My wife has 50 Rai in the Isan. Speaks well English if this helps. Wants to learn how to optimize the use of the land.

 

 

[finnsk]

My wife has a little farm in Lamphun before only Lom Jai fruit trees, very unsafe agrobuisness.

We where braking our heads of what to do.

We decided to change, now we have egg production, we plant mango trees and still keeps some Lom jai trees because of the tradition in the area.

Our main income is now comming from products we can sell by our self on the local markets. We try not to make product we had to sell to tradecompanies (exept the Lom Jai fruit)

If you are thinking in traditional farming (rice, mais etc) I am not a specialist, only I now you must take more care in the future of the water supply. And I know the marketprices is very fixed by the big tradingcompanies.

What about ananas/watermelon production, just an idea, here you better can follow/control the productprices.

 

Just some ideas.

 

[THAIPHUKET]

Any brainstorming idea is welcome! Thank you

[Grumpy John]

2 hours ago, finnsk said:

My wife has a little farm in Lamphun before only Lom Jai fruit trees, very unsafe agrobuisness.

We where braking our heads of what to do.

We decided to change, now we have egg production, we plant mango trees and still keeps some Lom jai trees because of the tradition in the area.

Our main income is now comming from products we can sell by our self on the local markets. We try not to make product we had to sell to tradecompanies (exept the Lom Jai fruit)

If you are thinking in traditional farming (rice, mais etc) I am not a specialist, only I now you must take more care in the future of the water supply. And I know the marketprices is very fixed by the big tradingcompanies.

What about ananas/watermelon production, just an idea, here you better can follow/control the productprices.

 

Just some ideas.

 

You hit on the magic 3 words "Sell it Yourself"!  Honestly selling through a buying agent sucks big time.  I've been telling the wife for a few years we need, among other things,  to sell our mangoes up on the highway at Wong Si Phun.  But she says it not good if I am there. Fine I say,  you ride the motorbike up,  I drive the pickup and park it outside Esso.   She hires someone from up there to work with her and I come home till 4 then I go get the pickup. She rides the bike home.  So far the plan hasn't had lift off!  I do the numbers to show her how much extra we make to know avail. 

[farmerjo]

Get your wife to talk to the local department of ag rep in the village.

He will have a good handle on what grows well in the area and current prices.

They will also know what farming workshops/courses are available producing different products. 

[finnsk]

1 hour ago, Grumpy John said:

You hit on the magic 3 words "Sell it Yourself"!  Honestly selling through a buying agent sucks big time.  I've been telling the wife for a few years we need, among other things,  to sell our mangoes up on the highway at Wong Si Phun.  But she says it not good if I am there. Fine I say,  you ride the motorbike up,  I drive the pickup and park it outside Esso.   She hires someone from up there to work with her and I come home till 4 then I go get the pickup. She rides the bike home.  So far the plan hasn't had lift off!  I do the numbers to show her how much extra we make to know avail. 

Hi John

 

My wife do the same, when we are going to buy or sell on markets, she ask me to go away, in the beginning I get sad and a little angry, now I see she is right, she get better sale/buyings when I am not there. 

I have meet local people who said they will never buy from a farang and the most thai people say that farang shall pay more than thai people.

I had the luck that my wife love to sell and buy (maybe not so good about buying ???? ). We are living a place where she did not grow up, the sales work has giving her the chance to know a lot of the local people.

 

 

[CLW]

The 50 rai are one piece of land?

What is the current use? Does it have access to water and electricity?

Rice paddy land can't hardly be used to grow anything else than rice.

[THAIPHUKET]

No, the largest is 17 rai. Water yes, electricity no

Neighbor wants to sell 10rai, asking 110.000, How does that sound?

 

Naive question, what makes soil only paddy soil?

But if rice is the only basically the only economical use, back to the opening question where to learn about .

 

Rather late I asked Google 

ศูนย์วิจัยข้าวแม่ฮ่องสอน MaeHongSon Rice Research Center NO INFO no website no phone

Anyone been there?

 

The other one is in India

https://riceindia.org/ but it targets educators

 

Edited February 6, 2020 by THAIPHUKET

[khwaibah]

On 2/4/2020 at 10:54 AM, THAIPHUKET said:

My wife has 50 Rai in the Isan. Speaks well English if this helps. Wants to learn how to optimize the use of the land.

 

My wife works directly with the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Livestock and other community groups that are backed and promoted by universities and other government organization. The DOA&DOLS have offices about 2 km from us which I admit is fortunate. She gets serious support from these groups. In the pass few days she has had two official groups from the DA and her Amphora on site of her farm. This morning she delivered fresh vegetables directly to the Kap Choeng Government Hospital and to the amphora office next to Surin Immigration. She has been contacted by a major Thai supermarket.  At the moment most of her product is bought up by the local restaurants and the hospital. Her advertising and contacts are done on Thai social medium. Your wife needs to make these contact. Wish her the best.

Edited February 6, 2020 by khwaibah

[finnsk]

24 minutes ago, THAIPHUKET said:

No, the largest is 17 rai. Water yes, electricity no

Neighbor wants to sell 10rai, asking 110.000, How does that sound?

10 rai to 110000 Bath, that is a good price, if it is agro cultivated field, I would buy it, if it is up to your field.

Take care be sure of the water supply, if you will make vegetables or any other things which will need watering, this year has being to dry, many have problems with their water wells. My water well ran out of water some weeks ago, but we have the luck we, could go 30 feet deeper in the drilled hole

 

 

 

[Liverpudlian]

1 hour ago, CLW said:

The 50 rai are one piece of land?

What is the current use? Does it have access to water and electricity?

Rice paddy land can't hardly be used to grow anything else than rice.

Yep especially Isaan soil its dead as heaven on a saturday night at best sugar cane but that fetches sod all thats why most farmers here get about on old bicycles or if credit worthy perhaps a clapped out motorbike.

[khwaibah]

1 hour ago, THAIPHUKET said:

No, the largest is 17 rai. Water yes, electricity no

Neighbor wants to sell 10rai, asking 110.000, How does that sound?

 

How much water?

[Liverpudlian]

29 minutes ago, finnsk said:

 

I bought 13 rye for 30.000 about 10 years ago and the market would be around that figure even now.

[IsaanAussie]

On 2/4/2020 at 12:51 PM, THAIPHUKET said:

Any brainstorming idea is welcome! Thank you

I have an Australian agronomist friend who consults in Asia and is interested in any opportunities here in Thailand. Typically he works with farming groups in India and Indonesia. Would anyone be potentially interested in being introduced? 

[IsaanAussie]

1 hour ago, THAIPHUKET said:

No, the largest is 17 rai. Water yes, electricity no

Neighbor wants to sell 10rai, asking 110.000, How does that sound?

 

Naive question, what makes soil only paddy soil?

But if rice is the only basically the only economical use, back to the opening question where to learn about .

 

Rather late I asked Google 

ศูนย์วิจัยข้าวแม่ฮ่องสอน MaeHongSon Rice Research Center NO INFO no website no phone

Anyone been there?

 

The other one is in India

https://riceindia.org/ but it targets educators

 

10 Rai for 100K? If it has title deed, and you can spare the cash then go for it.

 

What makes paddy soil different. Flooding a paddy for up to 6 months of the year, then drying it out with no coverage severely limits the soil biology. As a result the soil structure has little if any aggregation and low organic matter content. The soil compacts easily and hence has low percolation hence not much moisture in the soil. Finally because heavy wet season rainfall can't penetrate quickly, much runs off taking soil with it and results in erosion. 

[drtreelove]

On 2/5/2020 at 11:35 PM, IsaanAussie said:

I have an Australian agronomist friend who consults in Asia and is interested in any opportunities here in Thailand. Typically he works with farming groups in India and Indonesia. Would anyone be potentially interested in being introduced? 

Yes.  You have my email.