The future of Thai rice farming: Are Thai rice farmers losing heart?

BANGKOK: -- Rice farming has long been the mainstay of Thailand. Rice farmers were once dubbed the backbone of the nation. But as a new generation shuns taking over their ancestors' career, is Thailand's traditional vocation under threat in the heartland of this once agricultural country?

According to statistics from the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Co-operatives (BAAC) in the central province of Ayutthaya, there are some 32,000 registered farmers. The numbers of 'chao nah' (people of the rice fields in Thai) is declining in this former seat of Siam's monarchs, and today most rice farmers do not own the land they work.

Sutin Attanitee has been a rice farmer for his entire life. He’s 72 years old, but still in debt and doesn't have much land of his own. With his minimal income, he managed to pay his children's school tuition fees until their graduation. He said he will continue rice farming until he can't do it any more.

Despite being proud of his own career, Sutin realised his offspring would not want to continue his profession, for they experienced the hardship of their father from hard work, unstable income, and debt.

"Of course, I would want my kids to do what I do. But I don't think they would. If you have a comfortable job, who would want to be engaged in rice farming? I've been doing this my whole life and I still have huge debts," Sutin said.

The Thai Rice Foundation is under Royal Patronage. Its secretary-general Kwanjai Komes said the problem of the shrinking number of Thai rice farmers has affected the country in many dimensions, such as reduced rice exports and unstable rice prices. Thailand has now lost its ability to compete in rice exports to India and Vietnam. In the future Thailand will also have to import rice from neighbouring countries, she believes.

Kwanjai suggests that the government encourage using new technology in rice farming, create new dimensions, and encourage positive attitudes among rice farmers and the younger generation so they understand that rice farming can be a profitable business and not as difficult as they think.

"We have to create the ability of our rice farmers to compete, or other people will grow rice for us, which they can. This is something the foundation and I are very worried about. We must find measures and solutions to the problem. We have to learn to understand first the impact of this issue, which must be studied thoroughly," Kwanjai emphasised.

Also expressing a warning to the country, University of Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC) Economic and Business Forecasting Center director Dr Thanawat Polwichai recently said he is concerned there will be no more Thai rice farmers in another 10 years.

The average age of Thai rice farmers is currently 50 years old. They can grow rice for another decade, but their children don’t want to continue their parents’ profession. Many rice farmers' children sell their parents' land to investors for property development such as housing projects and golf courses.

If the government does not start building stability for rice farming business or for the farmers themselves, the country could also face food security concerns, particularly as rice is the country's main food.

"If rice farming in Thailand depends more on technology, we can still grow a lot of rice, despite the lower number of the farmers, and food security shouldn't be an issue. But if the number of the farmers declines considerably along with the number of tracts of land for growing rice, we could risk food security here," Thanawat said.

The matter is worrying, for Thailand may now be having its last generation of real rice farmers who depend on their labour for a good of quality of life. When worst comes to worst, Thailand's rice farming business in the future could possibly fall into the hands of foreign investors, and Thai people will only be hired as labour to do the farming.

It is a time for all those concerned to join hands to find immediate solutions to help renew the vocation of rice farming, as well as the well-being of Thai rice farmers so that their smiles will always be part of our Land of Smiles. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2012-08-13

The Thai farmer has been the butt of jokes by hi-sos for years. They are the backbone of the Puea Thai Party.

One day they will only just be able to provide food for themselves when all the land is owned by big businessmen.

No future in the fields.

maybe if the workers were paid a decent wage people wouldnt want to look elsewhere for jobs,170bt for a backbreaking days work why would anyone want to keep doing it.so much for the minimum wage in this country.

Her name is Kwanchai Gomez.

They have been screwed left,right and centre.Rice farming is no longer a viable business.The only people making money out of it are the fertiliser suppliers,millers shippers in short all the middle men.

Have a land reform,,cut middle men and other mafiosi hisos.Government should deal directly with the rice farmers

it certainly would help if the Thai went back to only growing indigenous crops and do it organically. There is nothing gained by dumping huge amounts of chemicals onto the ground other than smaller yields and huge costs, not to mention the repercussions of dealing with toxic chemicals.

Where I live in peri urban Chiang Mai every speculative land parcel that has lain idle for the past 10 years is now sprouting rice.

And there is a small army of piece workers planting, ploughing and spraying the poisons.

So the spectre of a Thailand unable to feed itself is codwallop.

What will happen is mechanisation

The era of back breaking labour will disappear with rsising labour costs and aversion to the hard work

The Thai farmer has been the butt of jokes by hi-sos for years. They are the backbone of the Puea Thai Party.

One day they will only just be able to provide food for themselves when all the land is owned by big businessmen.

No future in the fields.

That is PTP's long term goal. Ensure that rice farming becomes unsustainable due to hand outs regardless of quality and yield, no government R&D assistance, ban on organic festilisers and pesticides, ever rising costs of chemicals farmers are forced to use etc, etc. As farmers die off or get too old to work their land, tycoons like Thaksin will buy up their acreage from their children who have moved to slums and minimum wage jogs in the city. Agriculture will then become agribusiness owned by large corporations and the disadvantaged landless slum dwellers who are no longer on electoral roles in the countryside will become a new political constituency.

I am just amazed that mechanisation is not already being used. The result of dirt cheap labour I suppose. This must happen if Thailand is to stay competitive with other nations.

There is nothing wrong with dumping chemicals onto the ground. Fertilizer is a necessity of modern day agriculture. A lot of land would become highly unproducive without it. Thailand has a lot going for it to maintain it's position as the worlds top rice producer. The current government needs to somehow stop unrealistically raising the prices per ton of rice to uncompetitive heights. The world's population is growing. More and more people will be needing food. Don't price yourself out of the market.

http://www.economist.com/node/21558633

Gee.

Bet all those Issan and Pac Nua folks sure are glad they voted for the reds now.......

Was it worth the 500 bt.?

Its secretary-general Kwanjai Komes said the problem of the shrinking number of Thai rice farmers has affected the country in many dimensions, such as reduced rice exports and unstable rice prices

What a load of crap krup!

Reduced rice exports are due to the high price of Thai rice compared to the rest of the world. Prices would be stable if the government didn't keep interfering with price pledging schemes that ultimately only benefit the middleman.

The country is producing more rice than it can sell or consume, hence the huge stockpiles of 10 million tonnes plus

I am just amazed that mechanisation is not already being used. The result of dirt cheap labour I suppose. This must happen if Thailand is to stay competitive with other nations.

There is nothing wrong with dumping chemicals onto the ground. Fertilizer is a necessity of modern day agriculture. A lot of land would become highly unproducive without it. Thailand has a lot going for it to maintain it's position as the worlds top rice producer. The current government needs to somehow stop unrealistically raising the prices per ton of rice to uncompetitive heights. The world's population is growing. More and more people will be needing food. Don't price yourself out of the market.

http://www.economist.com/node/21558633

"Thailand has a lot going for it to maintain it's position as the worlds top rice producer."

Too late for that, they've already been surpassed.

"The current government needs to somehow stop unrealistically raising the prices per ton of rice to uncompetitive heights."

No chance, things are just fine thanks. Thailand can afford to lose mbillions of baht, losing "face" is another story.

Unfortunately, I feel the middle-men don't like or want their profit margins eroded so they pay a decent rate for the rice they buy off farmers. There are the Co-operatives that operate in many villages, but these don't seem to have a single voice as is the UK. If these cooperatives banded together and set up a department that bought the rice from the farmers, which it then sold onto the millers, cutting out the middle-men, and any rice-farming subsidies were paid to just this cooperative and then passed onto the farmers, rather than via the wholesalers and millers, they just might get a bigger 'cut' than they presently do. Obviously the bureaucrats, officials etc who have previously been taking a 'cut' wouldn't like this!

Its secretary-general Kwanjai Komes said the problem of the shrinking number of Thai rice farmers has affected the country in many dimensions, such as reduced rice exports and unstable rice prices

What a load of crap krup!

Reduced rice exports are due to the high price of Thai rice compared to the rest of the world. Prices would be stable if the government didn't keep interfering with price pledging schemes that ultimately only benefit the middleman.

The country is producing more rice than it can sell or consume, hence the huge stockpiles of 10 million tonnes plus

Yeah this is pretty much what I figured was going on, these schemes are just another way to rape the Treasury and screw the farmers. To quote Talking Heads: "Same as it ever was..."

Its secretary-general Kwanjai Komes said the problem of the shrinking number of Thai rice farmers has affected the country in many dimensions, such as reduced rice exports and unstable rice prices

What a load of crap krup!

Reduced rice exports are due to the high price of Thai rice compared to the rest of the world. Prices would be stable if the government didn't keep interfering with price pledging schemes that ultimately only benefit the middleman.

The country is producing more rice than it can sell or consume, hence the huge stockpiles of 10 million tonnes plus

Yeah this is pretty much what I figured was going on, these schemes are just another way to rape the Treasury and screw the farmers. To quote Talking Heads: "Same as it ever was..."

or"Burning down the house ",,,,,,,,,,

Explain to me. A long time ago...(before WWII), farming in Europe and North America did not provide a huge income. As we know, most farmers eventually went to the big city for higher incomes and their children (being educated in the cities) received a better education and chose various careers for their future. With the Thai farmers, will the same thing happen? Fewer farmers, so the income will go up?

They have been screwed left,right and centre.Rice farming is no longer a viable business.The only people making money out of it are the fertiliser suppliers,millers shippers in short all the middle men.

Hopefully, rice farming is on it's way out, with regard to Thailand. There are a hundred other crops the Thai people could be growing. Rice is a devastating crop, in that it ensures absolute poverty. The best thing any rice farmer can do is get away from this heinous crop, and find something lucrative, like exotic fruit, herbs, or a myriad of other crops that are far, far more profitable, and not such a backbreaker. Far from what these fools said decades ago, rice is the scourge of Thailand. It is a plague. It is a blight. It is a horrific crop that ensures that a family will remain dirt poor. Terribly unwise use of the land.

I am just amazed that mechanisation is not already being used. The result of dirt cheap labour I suppose. This must happen if Thailand is to stay competitive with other nations.

There is nothing wrong with dumping chemicals onto the ground. Fertilizer is a necessity of modern day agriculture. A lot of land would become highly unproducive without it. Thailand has a lot going for it to maintain it's position as the worlds top rice producer. The current government needs to somehow stop unrealistically raising the prices per ton of rice to uncompetitive heights. The world's population is growing. More and more people will be needing food. Don't price yourself out of the market.

http://www.economist.com/node/21558633

"Thailand has a lot going for it to maintain it's position as the worlds top rice producer."

Too late for that, they've already been surpassed.

"The current government needs to somehow stop unrealistically raising the prices per ton of rice to uncompetitive heights."

No chance, things are just fine thanks. Thailand can afford to lose mbillions of baht, losing "face" is another story.

It's not lost, it's just being redistributed, mainly to the deserving landowner and middleman, at taxpayer expense. Apparently the scheme relies on the trickle-down effect to reach the intended beneficiaries.

They have been screwed left,right and centre.Rice farming is no longer a viable business.The only people making money out of it are the fertiliser suppliers,millers shippers in short all the middle men.

Hopefully, rice farming is on it's way out, with regard to Thailand. There are a hundred other crops the Thai people could be growing. Rice is a devastating crop, in that it ensures absolute poverty. The best thing any rice farmer can do is get away from this heinous crop, and find something lucrative, like exotic fruit, herbs, or a myriad of other crops that are far, far more profitable, and not such a backbreaker. Far from what these fools said decades ago, rice is the scourge of Thailand. It is a plague. It is a blight. It is a horrific crop that ensures that a family will remain dirt poor. Terribly unwise use of the land.

To chase it as some badge of honour to be the largest rice exporter has been in the long run economic suicide for the countryside. The rice export business benefits precisely ONLY the exporters. Why produce something in such gargantuan volume that every year you can have a 30% surplus if it brings so little benefit to so few? Thailand can basically feed itself rice up until it has a population of 90mn. Whoooopeeeee. Who the hell settled on this to be some kind of fantastic long term goal?

But what to do? The entire centre of the country is a giant paddy field producing relatively low to medium quality rice, 3 times a year, and sadly the most valuable rice is produced in the parts of the country which has had the least investment put into it, and as such can only grow one (maybe 2) crops a year. A complete and utter screw up of a market producing too little of the right stuff and too much of the stuff that is interchangeable with other parts of the world. But was it ever thus????

Throwing subsidies at uneconomic industries only prolongs the pain of change, but then again rice subsidies are ALL to do with vote-buying and nothing to do with economics.

Explain to me. A long time ago...(before WWII), farming in Europe and North America did not provide a huge income. As we know, most farmers eventually went to the big city for higher incomes and their children (being educated in the cities) received a better education and chose various careers for their future. With the Thai farmers, will the same thing happen? Fewer farmers, so the income will go up?

Thais have been leaving the farms and looking for work in the cities at least ever since i've been coming here and that is over 23 years.

A major problem mitigating against mechanisation is the small size of the average ricefield these days.

Over the years large fields have been subdivided to share amongst the farmers children and now the fields are simply too small to use any sort of major equipment.

40 years ago I used to sell large (120+ HP) tractors in Thailand but nowadays even these cannot be used and farmers have to use small Japanese units or locally made "iron buffalo" type machines which can work in the small plots..

Patrick

If the just opened Thailand up to high tech farming people wouldnt have to do this back breaking work. The country would be more producive, more efficient and people would be richer. Government subsidising and controlling prices of rice is just ridiculous and keeps the farmers poor. What's the point? Tradiion? Oh the landowners would suddenly find their land is worth a lot more.. well thats got to be bad right? Oh . humm Protectionist, conservative BS the only people who benefit are the wealthy Thais who benefit from cheaper labor, products and services NOT the poor worried about losting their jobs to machines.. it simply doesnt work like that look at any industrialised country. Then on the other hand there are certain cheap product and services i benefit from so maybe i should keep quiet

"The future of Thai rice farming: Are Thai rice farmers losing heart?"

No, they're losing money, or soon will be..

If the just opened Thailand up to high tech farming people wouldnt have to do this back breaking work. The country would be more producive, more efficient and people would be richer. Government subsidising and controlling prices of rice is just ridiculous and keeps the farmers poor. What's the point? Tradiion? Oh the landowners would suddenly find their land is worth a lot more.. well thats got to be bad right? Oh . humm Protectionist, conservative BS the only people who benefit are the wealthy Thais who benefit from cheaper labor, products and services NOT the poor worried about losting their jobs to machines.. it simply doesnt work like that look at any industrialised country. Then on the other hand there are certain cheap product and services i benefit from so maybe i should keep quiet

Thailand has the same problem with all of it's home produced commodities. When sugar, Palm Oil, Rice, Cassava, are in short supply it is usually due to poor management and / or corruption. Just think what Thailand's GDP could be if senior civil servants, politicians and middle men were not corrupt.

Not just rice farmers, rubber is another product the government has apparently being trying to influence prices. Getting to the point where the depots won't buy until the price stops falling.

Unfortunately, I feel the middle-men don't like or want their profit margins eroded so they pay a decent rate for the rice they buy off farmers. There are the Co-operatives that operate in many villages, but these don't seem to have a single voice as is the UK. If these cooperatives banded together and set up a department that bought the rice from the farmers, which it then sold onto the millers, cutting out the middle-men, and any rice-farming subsidies were paid to just this cooperative and then passed onto the farmers, rather than via the wholesalers and millers, they just might get a bigger 'cut' than they presently do. Obviously the bureaucrats, officials etc who have previously been taking a 'cut' wouldn't like this!

The companies that buy the rice from the farmers are a big part of the problem because of the inadequate price the farmers are paid.That price can be manipulated in a number of ways and one is on the moisture content of the paddy rice.

Rice is too cheap.

The richer Thai people should pay more for it.

Rice is too cheap.

The richer Thai people should pay more for it.

Means testing before you buy food, brilliant idea.