Thai Govt Implements Measures to Combat Illegal Burning and Improve Air Quality

[10baht]

7 hours ago, Henryford said:

"implement measures" ha ha. Just jail the first farmer caught burning, it would stop tomorrow.

Or hold his feet to the fire first.

[JBChiangRai]

There's an easy solution to this, I posted it last year too.

 

Using satellites, identify any fields that were burnt and the army go in and destroy crops on those fields during the growing season, simple, problem fixed once and for all.

 

The jungle being burnt for mushrooms is a tad more difficult. 

[trainman34014]

The usual type of service we get from Politicians everywhere......LIP SERVICE !

[aseanfan]

What is the analysis of the 'pollution' in the air?  I don't think it has anything to do with 'burning' or cars, trucks and busses.  Today in Bangkok, we had a 3 hour rain storm early in the morning - but the online weather forecast showed sunny conditions with zero chance of rain... What is going on?  Look up and see the trails for an answer.  

I flew domestically a couple of days ago - no sign of burning, BUT there was a layer of fug that the plane bounced over at about 15,000 feet.  Why and what is going on?  I've been in Thailand for 20 years, and silver skies were not normal for many of those years....

[kickstart]

14 hours ago, Roo Island said:

An interesting read.

 

https://www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/tangled-problem-sugarcane-burning-thailand

 

With wealthy owners of sugar companies holding the balance of power in this industry, the Thai government, as a Thai financial sector consultant asserted, has taken "a kid gloves" approach to environmental governance since "setting back billionaire families is not exactly this government's priority."

 

Because the Thai government neither provides any financing or other mechanisms to encourage non-burning methods of disposing of agricultural waste nor does it stipulate a minimum wage for cane cutters, smallholders with fluctuating incomes and ongoing production costs are forced to pollute their own homelands. Rather than offer sustainable livelihood alternatives, such as subsidizing the use of machinery to clear excess biomass, the government tends to comply with the requests of agribusiness companies and farmer groups to relax the percentage of burnt sugarcane that they can then legally sell.

Read that article ,has the author actually been to Thailand and seen Thai farming? reading it give the impression that all rice farmers grow three crops a year ,ask our Essan farmers about that.one crop a year

I live in a big maize /corn growing area very little burning, and it give the impression again that corn farmers are in debt big time to the big agriculture conglomerates, when in fact it is the BAAC bank, known as the farmers and co-op bank a government bank is where the farmers debt is ,a quick look at Google very little corn is exported from Thailand.

They are other facts not so true, all done by Google and AI?

[Roo Island]

1 hour ago, aseanfan said:

What is the analysis of the 'pollution' in the air?  I don't think it has anything to do with 'burning' or cars, trucks and busses.  Today in Bangkok, we had a 3 hour rain storm early in the morning - but the online weather forecast showed sunny conditions with zero chance of rain... What is going on?  Look up and see the trails for an answer.  

I flew domestically a couple of days ago - no sign of burning, BUT there was a layer of fug that the plane bounced over at about 15,000 feet.  Why and what is going on?  I've been in Thailand for 20 years, and silver skies were not normal for many of those years....

Definitely a combination of cars, construction, factories, and burning. That's well documented.

 

Burning is everywhere. Every day.

[Roo Island]

3 minutes ago, kickstart said:

Read that article ,has the author actually been to Thailand and seen Thai farming? reading it give the impression that all rice farmers grow three crops a year ,ask our Essan farmers about that.one crop a year

I live in a big maize /corn growing area very little burning, and it give the impression again that corn farmers are in debt big time to the big agriculture conglomerates, when in fact it is the BAAC bank, known as the farmers and co-op bank a government bank is where the farmers debt is ,a quick look at Google very little corn is exported from Thailand.

They are other facts not so true, all done by Google and AI?

The article was about sugarcane. Most farmers barely make a living.

[connda]

15 hours ago, Roo Island said:

An interesting read.

 

https://www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/tangled-problem-sugarcane-burning-thailand

 

With wealthy owners of sugar companies holding the balance of power in this industry, the Thai government, as a Thai financial sector consultant asserted, has taken "a kid gloves" approach to environmental governance since "setting back billionaire families is not exactly this government's priority."

 

Because the Thai government neither provides any financing or other mechanisms to encourage non-burning methods of disposing of agricultural waste nor does it stipulate a minimum wage for cane cutters, smallholders with fluctuating incomes and ongoing production costs are forced to pollute their own homelands. Rather than offer sustainable livelihood alternatives, such as subsidizing the use of machinery to clear excess biomass, the government tends to comply with the requests of agribusiness companies and farmer groups to relax the percentage of burnt sugarcane that they can then legally sell.

Same reason for burning mountains of corn stubble out in Mae Hong Song.  Billionaires are winners; everyone else are losers.

[kickstart]

15 minutes ago, Roo Island said:

The article was about sugarcane. Most farmers barely make a living.

If you read it, they are corn and rice articles, in fact this year is a good year for sugar cane farmers, they is world shortage of sugar, the price is good about 1400-1500 baht/ton, most it has ever been, yields are down though.

[Dickie Dee]

22 hours ago, webfact said:

 

On February 15th, 2024, Deputy Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul disclosed directives following a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin. Governors were instructed to conduct field inspections and engage communities to halt illegal agricultural burning.

The Ministry of the Interior, Natural Resources and Environment, and Royal Thai Army united per the Prime Minister’s order to assist locals in agricultural disposal and explore alternatives to crop burning.

 

Anutin convened with northern governors in Chiang Rai to address PM 2.5 concerns. While Chiang Mai boasted good air quality recently, Kanchanaburi faced troubling hot spots, prompting Anutin’s intervention.

 

In the Bangkok Metropolitan Region, remote work measures were under consideration alongside intensified vehicle emissions checks. Anutin noted these initiatives aligned with ongoing discussions on amendments to the Clean Air Act bill.

 

By Kittisak Phalaharn

 

Full story: THE PATTAYA NEWS 2024-02-17

 

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Government intervention… caravans of field tilling units. Do a farm in hours. Farmer pays a tilling tax at harvest. Its the only way. Must meet with Myanmar to join. Its killing everyone. 

[ThaiFelix]

On 2/17/2024 at 10:12 AM, john donson said:

do nothing, get paid the same

 

don't you think in this land of corruption, big sugar has long fingers in the politics to be sure they will not be fined or lose money

What do you mean do nothing?  Just in the last 2 weeks they have blamed Cambodia for the pollution PLUS warned people off getting carried away burning incence sticks!  Thats twice as much as their usual effort!

[spidermike007]

Such unbelievable nonsense, this man would say anything to avoid taking responsibility and putting pressure on his Masters, who own many of the Big Agra companies.

 

They are doing absolutely nothing, there will be no follow-up, there will be very few fines, and there will be  no pressure put on the refiners.

 

Expect a continued backwards movement as long as these clowns are in charge. Sretta, Anutin, PT and the army are the do nothing men. 

[retarius]

Governments propose things, but people implement the proposals....people like the police, at least that is how it is in all the other countries I've lived in. 

To be fair, it's actually pretty easy for Anutin or Srettha to say, "clean up the air" and then say, "OK that's my job done." What is immensely more difficult to do is to implement the brilliant idea you came up with. Governments don't implement anything.....they call for change, which is the really easy part, then they duck out to leave the heavy lifting to the grunts. I drove along a highway today and saw literally hundreds of fields on fire in Nakhon Ratchasima. Fires visible for miles, but the police were invisible, which means no one has actually implemented anything. Perhaps I am being unfair as the meeting with the governors was not until today.....but the issue of illegal bringing and crap air quality has been going on for months and no one in government has done anything about it except make stupid announcements to the press. Call a press conference when you have actually done something you <deleted>s 

[Roo Island]

https://tna.mcot.net/english-news-1320446

 

Bangkok Ranks among Top 10 Most Polluted Cities

[bristolgeoff]

Most bars have lots of open walls,but not all of course.So smoking is done outside.I have never found people who smoke inside is a issue.But in closed areas 4 walls they do go outside.The burning how many years have people said we will do something.The thai people listen and then burn whatever plant refuse on the side of the land.Will they stop it ever I don,t know