Thailand Tipped To Produce 32 Million Tonnes Of Rice

[webfact]

 

THAILAND IS FORECAST to produce some 32 million tonnes of rice in 2023/2024 season, according to the Office of Agricultural Economics.

 

The estimated 32 million tonnes of rice include 25.5 million tonnes of single-harvest crops in varied parts of the country and 6.7 million tonnes of multiple-harvest crops, which are mostly produced in the central region.

 

That accounts for a 6% drop in total production volume from the previous season largely due to the regional El Nino phenomenon, said an official of the agricultural agency.

 

By Thai Newsroom Reporters

Paddy fields in Thailand. Photo: Thai Rath

 

Full story: THAI NEWSROOM 2023-11-11

 

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[spidermike007]

Rice is a nice food to eat, but a dreadful crop to grow. It ensures a lifetime of poverty. 

 

There is a very simple solution to this problem. If the authorities were interested in solutions. The burning has to stop. There are alternatives, to this 19th century technique of burning after the sugar cane harvest. Either the government starts to encourage farmers to switch to more environmentally friendly crops, or they start to penalize farmers for burning. This heinous burning, is leading to a tremendous degree of environmental degradation, and alot of lung disease.

 

The government should offer incentives, for the farmers to switch crops. This is 2023. Rice and sugar worked in previous centuries. Now, they do not make any sense. Too labor intensive, too much degradation of the land, water, air, and resources. Let's get with the times. Let us move forward. 

 

[xylophone]

5 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Rice is a nice food to eat, but a dreadful crop to grow. It ensures a lifetime of poverty. 

 

There is a very simple solution to this problem. If the authorities were interested in solutions. The burning has to stop. There are alternatives, to this 19th century technique of burning after the sugar cane harvest. Either the government starts to encourage farmers to switch to more environmentally friendly crops, or they start to penalize farmers for burning. This heinous burning, is leading to a tremendous degree of environmental degradation, and alot of lung disease.

 

The government should offer incentives, for the farmers to switch crops. This is 2023. Rice and sugar worked in previous centuries. Now, they do not make any sense. Too labor intensive, too much degradation of the land, water, air, and resources. Let's get with the times. Let us move forward. 

 

A good post SM, and I agree with what you have said and I've often thought there has to be a better way to deal with the burning of the stubble left after rice and sugarcane harvesting.

 

Some sort of mechanical mulcher fitted to the front of a tractor which ground up the stubble with the soil, making it ready for the next harvest, and of course no burning.

 

Even if there was a government initiative which allocated one of these "machines" per tambon (or similar) for general use, this would go a long way to solving the problem.

 

My suggestion may seem too hard/simplistic, however there has to be a way to make something like this work in this day and age. That's my 10 pennyworth.

[Will B Good]

Very little of the rice stubble is burned where we are....it is just left......the wife claims (and she is never wrong) that the burning is intense around BKK because they are greedy and try to squeeze out three or four crops a year.

[hotchilli]

44 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Rice is a nice food to eat, but a dreadful crop to grow. It ensures a lifetime of poverty. 

 

There is a very simple solution to this problem. If the authorities were interested in solutions. The burning has to stop. There are alternatives, to this 19th century technique of burning after the sugar cane harvest. Either the government starts to encourage farmers to switch to more environmentally friendly crops, or they start to penalize farmers for burning. This heinous burning, is leading to a tremendous degree of environmental degradation, and alot of lung disease.

 

The government should offer incentives, for the farmers to switch crops. This is 2023. Rice and sugar worked in previous centuries. Now, they do not make any sense. Too labor intensive, too much degradation of the land, water, air, and resources. Let's get with the times. Let us move forward. 

 

Thais will switch to palm oil.. 

[The Cyclist]

49 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

The government should offer incentives, for the farmers to switch crops.

 

In some instances this will not work. It will not change some mindsets.

 

I tried, alongside my other half, to get her brother to ditch the rice growing and move into something else. Going as far as offering to pay initial costs.

 

Not a chance, rice it always has been and rice it always will be.

[Muhendis]

2 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

The government should offer incentives, for the farmers to switch crops.

Whilst I find myself in agreement with your comment to a certain extent, it is a simplistic blanket coverage which only works if many other criteria are included and addressed. 

Here in Buriram, the soil is ideally suited for growing Hom Mali which is the name for Fragrant or Jasmine rice. There would need to be a lot of soil changes to grow other crops in any profitable quality and quantity.

 

In addition to that, as The Cyclist said, there would be a reluctance for many rice growers to change to another cash crop. As I write I am reminding myself that this has been overcome some years ago when other farmers around me changed to growing sugar cane. Trouble is that those guys are now finding the value of their crop being eroded by the factories to which they are tied.

 

Regarding burning.

That hasn't happened for years around here. We harvest the rice then harvest the straw for fodder sales. The stubble is left and ploughed back in so it can rot down to provide humus for the next crop.

We also invite our local herds of cow and buffalo to eat and crap on our land.

So the next time you swallow a mouthful of rice...........

[dinsdale]

3 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Rice is a nice food to eat, but a dreadful crop to grow. It ensures a lifetime of poverty. 

 

There is a very simple solution to this problem. If the authorities were interested in solutions. The burning has to stop. There are alternatives, to this 19th century technique of burning after the sugar cane harvest. Either the government starts to encourage farmers to switch to more environmentally friendly crops, or they start to penalize farmers for burning. This heinous burning, is leading to a tremendous degree of environmental degradation, and alot of lung disease.

 

The government should offer incentives, for the farmers to switch crops. This is 2023. Rice and sugar worked in previous centuries. Now, they do not make any sense. Too labor intensive, too much degradation of the land, water, air, and resources. Let's get with the times. Let us move forward. 

 

All well and good but you seem to have missed the bit about types of alternative crops.

[spidermike007]

3 hours ago, The Cyclist said:

 

In some instances this will not work. It will not change some mindsets.

 

I tried, alongside my other half, to get her brother to ditch the rice growing and move into something else. Going as far as offering to pay initial costs.

 

Not a chance, rice it always has been and rice it always will be.

 

It is very difficult to get a highly conservative mind that has been accustomed to living in a tiny box of convention, to change, evolve, progress and move forward in a meaningful and positive manner. 

[The Cyclist]

2 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

 

It is very difficult to get a highly conservative mind that has been accustomed to living in a tiny box of convention, to change, evolve, progress and move forward in a meaningful and positive manner. 

 

Not quite sure that applies to rice in Thailand, for many.

 

Quite happy to throw half a Baht 400 pizza in the bin, different story with a scoop of rice.

 

I feel sick because I haven't ate rice yet today.

 

There is more at work, where rice is concerned, than a conservative mind.