Drought In Isaan

[roietjimmy]

For those who haven't seen this yet.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/27Jul2007_news15.php

[sutnyod]

For those who haven't seen this yet.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/27Jul2007_news15.php

There there... What was that the oxen predicted? Ample rain!

[roietjimmy]

For those who haven't seen this yet.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/27Jul2007_news15.php

There there... What was that the oxen predicted? Ample rain!

You're right whats all the fuss. Hope the good governor has an oxen. If not, we will be irritated again with those noisey Thai Air Force C-130s buzzing around trying to seed the clouds.

[Nomad97]

I think the drought has just been broken in Surin. All the roads around where I live are flooded with the downpour that we have just had over the past hour. Lots and lots of lovely rain!

[Martin]

Many fields around here haven't yet had the rice transplanted into them yet because they are still bone dry.

And more and more of the fields that have been planted are looking to be in desperate need of water.

There are some heavy thundershowers about, but they don't contribute all that much, even to the places that they hit---and they miss a lot.

I have been here ten years and seem to have always seen a lot more rice planted out by this time of the year previously.

[Gary A]

Last week a friend of mine who lives about 8 kilometers from me had a goose drowner rain and we got nothing. Today he got nothing and we had about three inches of rain. It is really strange that the rain is so spotty. If my wife's rice paddies have water tomorrow, she plans on planting some more rice. The rice she has planted is most likely in pretty good shape right now. No wonder Asians are addicted to gambling.

[Martin]

The thunderstorms from these sharply-defined cells right underneath a towering cumulus cloud may be dramatic, but they don't really do much good for farmers.

What is needed is a few days of the sky filled with a blanket of those low, dark, steadily-raining clouds. That is what soaks the ground to a useful depth and fills the lakes, and ponds.

One of our neighbours has a pond in which he raises a 'crop' of edible frogs. But he has been waiting and waiting for his pond to fill.

[Gary A]

The thunderstorms from these sharply-defined cells right underneath a towering cumulus cloud may be dramatic, but they don't really do much good for farmers.

What is needed is a few days of the sky filled with a blanket of those low, dark, steadily-raining clouds. That is what soaks the ground to a useful depth and fills the lakes, and ponds.

One of our neighbours has a pond in which he raises a 'crop' of edible frogs. But he has been waiting and waiting for his pond to fill.

Our two small farms are about a kilometer apart. One farm got at least four inches of rain and the other got no more than enough to wet the ground.

[mackayae]

Huay Luang reservoir, Udon's major water supply is very low. City water is on intermittently. Once in the morning before school and at night. When on, the pressure is very low. We had a lot of rain in the dry season, however, since the official rainy season has started it has been dry.

Edited July 29, 2007 by mackayae

[Thaddeus]

The thunderstorms from these sharply-defined cells right underneath a towering cumulus cloud may be dramatic, but they don't really do much good for farmers.

What is needed is a few days of the sky filled with a blanket of those low, dark, steadily-raining clouds. That is what soaks the ground to a useful depth and fills the lakes, and ponds.

One of our neighbours has a pond in which he raises a 'crop' of edible frogs. But he has been waiting and waiting for his pond to fill.

Same here.... no rain now for three days and the last rain we did have was a torrential downpour, it flattened young trees and turned the red roads into impassible conduits, not the sort of weather that any farmer hankers for..... I don't want it to be, but I think that it is going to be a bad year.

[macb]

Well I have not bothered reading the link to the Bkk post :

So I will post a reply as it is in the village :

Last night steady shower from about 0100 hrs. till 0300hrs

The day before had a good rain the crops that were yellowish are now green again, this is how it goes: Yes I would agree I think it is going to be a poor crop year .

Outlook

http://weather.uk.msn.com/local.aspx?wealocations=wc:6753287

Edited July 31, 2007 by macb

[Gimbo]

Well, the rains finally came today. Been pouring down since around 1500hrs in upper Buriram and still raining the wife says and that was around 2200hrs. She was quite relived as no rain apart from a short shower or two for 4-6 weeks.

[roietjimmy]

Rain in Roiet from around 8PM to 5AM this morning. Finally can see a little standing water in rice paddies so things are looking up. Generally overcast today means more rain to be expected. Lest we forget no rain means no/less fish and frogs to augment food supplies. I noticed a few of the locals out in the fields early this morning catching frogs as they reemerged after the rain.

[Bicko]

Thanks for the info Gimbo. My wife and i are in Indonesia at the moment but she has been very concerned about the welfare of the family if they have a poor crop again this year.

Whereabouts is your place. We are near Lam Plai Mat so hope it is raining there too

Cheers

[Gimbo]

Thanks for the info Gimbo. My wife and i are in Indonesia at the moment but she has been very concerned about the welfare of the family if they have a poor crop again this year.

Whereabouts is your place. We are near Lam Plai Mat so hope it is raining there too

Cheers

We are just a bit north of you, in Putthaisong :-)

[Bicko]

Thanks for the info Gimbo. My wife and i are in Indonesia at the moment but she has been very concerned about the welfare of the family if they have a poor crop again this year.

Whereabouts is your place. We are near Lam Plai Mat so hope it is raining there too

Cheers

We are just a bit north of you, in Putthaisong :-)

Thanks mate. That's good news.

Cheers, Bicko

[Bicko]

Thanks Mate. That is good news.

Cheers,

Bicko

[Gimbo]

Looks like the rainy season has started for real. It rained until midnight last night, and the wife says that all her fields now have water. As we spoke on the phone just a few minutes ago the heavens opened up yet again, and I could hear it trough the phone line. She was so happy she did not know what leg to stand on.

It means a lot in the village, and she says yesterday everyone was very worried, but today everyone is happy and smiling again...I just hope they get enough to save the harvest.

[Martin]

We. too, had good steady rain during the night and have a grey sky, which means that the water is standing around in pools and not being evaporated by the sun.

Thong thinks we may get our rice transplanted now; though she had, last week, told our 'tenant' that she accepted he might just have to broadcast seed. (He had come to her when we were at a funeral in the village, looking very concerned about how late in the season it had got.)

[feffejonsson]

Does anyone have information about the weather in the Tha Tum/Rattana Buri/Chumphon Buri area? Grateful for answers. I´m in Sweden right now and I´m worrying about the inlaws.

[dkstoney]

You know, they run around running their mouths about the wise king's sufficiency theory and then they don't use it. It specifically recommends rainwater storage (don't do it) and break the habit of monoculture (only growing rice--diversify your agricultural portfolio). When will they learn? When will they learn?

[Thaddeus]

You know, they run around running their mouths about the wise king's sufficiency theory and then they don't use it. It specifically recommends rainwater storage (don't do it) and break the habit of monoculture (only growing rice--diversify your agricultural portfolio). When will they learn? When will they learn?

Some already have. I can, of course, only speak for my local region, most here have diversified their crops, the main produce is rubber anyway, so the crops are for own use and not sale. Reservoirs have been dug, we have one of the largest ones in Buriram, if not all of the country, just 1 kilometre from my house, fat lot of good it does if you haven't had any significant rainfall for over half a year. You collect it, you use it, but it doesn't last forever.

I find your comments impolite, inaccurate and very insulting to my neighbours.

[Martin]

You know, they run around running their mouths about the wise king's sufficiency theory and then they don't use it. It specifically recommends rainwater storage (don't do it) and break the habit of monoculture (only growing rice--diversify your agricultural portfolio). When will they learn? When will they learn?

Some already have. I can, of course, only speak for my local region, most here have diversified their crops, the main produce is rubber anyway, so the crops are for own use and not sale. Reservoirs have been dug, we have one of the largest ones in Buriram, if not all of the country, just 1 kilometre from my house, fat lot of good it does if you haven't had any significant rainfall for over half a year. You collect it, you use it, but it doesn't last forever.

I find your comments impolite, inaccurate and very insulting to my neighbours.

Well said, 'Thaddeus'.

Just because some people don't go off to be city slickers, or swell the ranks of the urban poor, doesn't mean they are all 'thickies'. Some are, but some aren't.

That the villages survived at all, through the times of the past when the people were even more vulnerable, is a tribute to the wisdom of the village leadership.

That Thailand could be hit by the monetary crisis of 1997 and make its comeback is a tribute to the strength of the Social Security system of Thailand: the villages.

As consumerism wanes in the face of less-available resources being able to be won from within the earth, it will be the villages (and their re-strengthening) that saves the day.

And there will be a need for Peasantry 101 being made available to assist some of the urbanites to cope with their transition!!

[Bicko]

Yes well said Thaddeus. I originally grew up in outback Australia where water is our scarcest commodity and greatest asset. Our kids are taught in school from an early age about water conservation, turning off taps, recycling water and so on so i am as water conscious as it is possible to be.

Here in Buri Ram we have had a couple of pretty dry years but the rains do come and then we store every bit that we can. Thais do that as a matter of course and i have yet to see a house in an upcountry Thailand village that does not have at least 2 or 3 aung naam so what is this dude talking about.

He/she has obviously never been out of the city.

We have a lot of farm land and grow one rain fed crop of rice a year and for the remainder we grow fruit and vegetables- spring onions, cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes, a huge variety of herbs, papaya etc etc all on water that we pump from our large water storage dams on the properties.

Water is pumped over the dam wall using the long handled tractor and the long spiral pump and 100mm diameter flexible hoses.

I don't know what country he/she comes from but most countries that are major agricultural producers rely on one rain fed crop per year- Canada, US, Russia and Australia as an example of large scale wheat producers where it is not possible to grow outside of the rainy season and irrigation on the scale of the size of their farms is impossible. The exception being places, for example, like parts of the US (Arizona and California) where large scale centre pivot and travelling irrigators are used for alfalfa, corn , cotton, vegetables etc but the days of large scale irrigation all over the world are close to an end in the majority of cases as the major aquifers are being drawn down more quickly than they can replenish.

I worked as an Agricultural consultant in the Gulf countries for many years. (I am also an Engineering consultant) In UAE and Kuwait the old men used to tell that when they were young men they walked their donkeys down a spiral pathway into the wells to carry water out for their orchards and gardens. Nowadays they pump water from 300 metres (1,000 feet) depth to draw water for the same orchards and they keep doing it. I had one guy who said he would pay me anything to "fix up his water problem." My response was simply "stop pumping water!!" He thought that i was crazy!!! Hmmm who is crazy.

In Saudi Arabia they grew wheat on centre pivot irrigation for a few years until their aquifers were producing salt water- then they stopped. The tragedy of that was that the wheat was of little use for anything other than animal feed. So they have lost their underground water and it will probably never be replenished - water that has probably been there for hundreds of years. Many of the Wadis are dry and the oases have gone. Irrigated wheat is too soft to mill for flour. That is why rain fed wheat from the countries mentioned above is highly suitable for flour - it grows during the rainy season then matures and is harvested after a fairly lengthy dry period still on the stalk. It is very dry and very hard and good for milling. In fact in Australia the wheat is tested for moisture content when it is purchased from the farmers. The drier the wheat the higher the price.

[citizen33]

The drought finally seems to be ending in eastern Mahasarakham/western Kalasin. There have been two nights of heavy rain and the rice is turning green. It looks like the crop could still be okay.

Edited August 5, 2007 by citizen33

[nitehawk56]

My wife lives in Jangwat, Sesaket, it has been raining there for the last 5-6 days, cell phone no good during storms, she told me yesterday, when I finally got a call through that it has rained so much that the pond overflowed and the fish we stocked it with are now in the Rice field, oh well, what can I say 500 baht 2000 fish, no big deal, just wish it would slack off a little bit, so I can get a call through.

[Aujuba]

Rattanaburi is getting it good today (Aug 6) so Tha Tum must be getting the same. The sky was overcast yesterday. My brother-in-law is planting his rice crop tomorrow due to the good rain. Lets hope the rain continues for a while and it doesn't dry out again. The reservoirs here are very low so the rain will help. By the way, it's also comfortably cool now.

[gzu88bv]

It has been pouring down at least where I live and soon we might be talking about flooding.

[Gary A]

Here in Loei we have our first GOOD rain since mid June. It has rained steadily all night and it appears to be widespread. When it stops we will go have a look at the farms and decide if we will plant more rice. Last week we had a cloud burst at one farm and the other, less than a kilometer away got no more than enough to wet the ground surface.

[Aujuba]

Yesterday I tried to post but for some reason it didn't go through. Well, the weather in Rattanaburi is still mixed. August 8th in the morning it was sunny and clear but by 3pm the rains had started again. We really got a serious downpour in the early evening. Today the skies are overcast so its quite dreary. It appears to be another rain day.