300,000 rai of rice farms in Buriram to be turned into sugarcane farms

[Lite Beer]

300,000 rai of rice farms in Buriram to be turned into sugarcane farms

BANGKOK, 7 August 2013 (NNT) – The Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry is keen on turning 300,000 rai of rice farms in Buriram northeastern Province into sugarcane plantations.

Agriculture Minister Yukol Limlamthong has paid a visit to Buriram Province to follow up on the Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s policy on agricultural zoning. According to him, around 3 million rai of land in the province is being used for rice growing. However, official surveys show that 300,000 rai of the areas should be more suitable for sugarcane due soil and weather conditions.

The minister suggested that in the first year of agricultural zoning, 60,000 rai of land should be turned to sugarcane cultivation, adding that he would ask sugar refineries to increase their production capacity in order to absorb the increasing supply of sugarcane. The minister believed that the crop zoning policy will reduce agriculture-related problems.

Agricultural zoning is the government’s idea to help farmers cope with the changing weather, high production cost, low prices of agricultural products, and unreliable produce. The government is now trying to promote this idea throughout the country.

-- NNT 2013-08-08

[MaxLee]

What a great idea, let's make a sugar pledging scheme for the next election, and make rice more expensive and rare than already rots in millions of tons of dirty rotten warehouses...

Sugar pledging scheme here I come!!!!!

Promote Sugar, and get the people of Thailand fatter and lazier up their BEHINDS...

[Skint]

Most farmers in the village where my mrs is from have already turned to sugar cane with only doing rice for eat, like everything else the price for sugar cane will no doubt drop like a stone and soon enough will be in the same situation as they are with rice. Thailand needs to get a grip of the corruption and start investing in Infrastructure.

[khwaibah]

Most farmers in the village where my mrs is from have already turned to sugar cane with only doing rice for eat, like everything else the price for sugar cane will no doubt drop like a stone and soon enough will be in the same situation as they are with rice. Thailand needs to get a grip of the corruption and start investing in Infrastructure.

300,000 rai peanuts when compared to the 6,000,000 acre Anna Creek station in Australia. On the other side lot of rai have not been planted this season for this very reason.

[Robby nz]

A problem I see with this and changing to other crops is that rice is a short rotation crop ready for harvest in months and therefor bringing in income quickly yet every alternative except sweet corn is a long rotation crop.

So what are the farmers going to live on till the wait for the sugar cane to mature to harvest?

[CTO]

Anna creek may be large, but it doesn't grow much, takes that much land to feed 3000 cows. I've worked on Yakkamunda, that time it was just a few hundred sq miles, earlier days over 1000, still, not a lot grows there.

Back on the Liverpool Plains, one of Australia's most fertile areas, you can get wheat up to two tonne an acre, not sure what the rice yield is, but it's pretty good at times, then a few years in between, nothing.

Comparing a huge Aussie property with a Thai one isn't apples and oranges.

[BuriramRes]

Sugar cane can be grown on flood plain land whereas rice is ruined when flooded too much.

[Pikeybkk]

what about potatoes? Surely they can grow a few spuds?

[oxo1947]

Sugar cane can be grown on flood plain land whereas rice is ruined when flooded too much.

Is that correct BurriranRes...?

I ask because I know a lot of people that would like to change over, but say that the conditions they have are to wet for Sugar cane.---You can actually grow it in Rice paddy's without adding more land fill first ?

[technologybytes]

Sugar is an expensive crop, that's why most major food manufacturers these days prefer to use High Fructose Corn Syrup instead because its cheaper, and that's much worse for the consumer.

It's a good move to diversify crop growing in Essarn, it's too dependent on rice.

[swissie]

A problem I see with this and changing to other crops is that rice is a short rotation crop ready for harvest in months and therefor bringing in income quickly yet every alternative except sweet corn is a long rotation crop.

So what are the farmers going to live on till the wait for the sugar cane to mature to harvest?

Not to worry. The local loan-shark will bridge them over. If that does not work, they will send the prettiest daughter to Pattaya to work as a receptionist in a 5 star hotel.

Cheers.

[inquisitive]

Is the switch from rice to sugar going to be compulsory?

[Soi Dog]

The government needs to stop trying to control the farmers and the marketplace and instead empower the farmers with training and information so they can make their own decisions. This will of course never happens as it runs against the feudal tradition of farmers as serfs rather than entrepreneurs.

[finnomick]

Sugar cane can be grown on flood plain land whereas rice is ruined when flooded too much.

Is that correct BurriranRes...?

I ask because I know a lot of people that would like to change over, but say that the conditions they have are to wet for Sugar cane.---You can actually grow it in Rice paddy's without adding more land fill first ?

Absolute rot -- literally ! Sugar cane left in standing water for more than 5 or 6 weeks rots and dies. We have already seen this with last year's crop and where this happened we ( our family ) have returned to growing rice. Not only this, but the sugar cane factories are already unable to cope with the increased crop in our region. They promise to come and cut in January. This year we ( our family ) ended up cutting ourselves after continuous failed promises from the factory -- and that was in May, four months late. PLUS, this year's price was LOWER than last year so convert to growing sugar cane at your peril. It will be an absolute disaster for whole regions to be sweet talked into changing their crop by a government desperate to lower the amount of rice produced here. Already government agents have been around our area offering farmers free sugar cane ' plants ' to start them off. Trouble is, they are then tied to certain sugar cane factories where they must sell their crop. These factories are way too small now. The farmers will be the ones to lose -- big style.

I know I'm usually fairly flippant with my posts, but I've never been more serious than now. Do NOT convert paddies to sugar cane, you'll lose the crop and all revenue you've been told you'll earn.

[deepcell]

That is the utmost dumb ass idea I have ever heard ... please do not f*** with people, do not f*** with the country. The soil after long year of planting sugar cane became dry, very dry, useless, and it is very difficult to revert the situation back to the original soil.

For example in Brazil, the stupid people of government had a "great stupid" idea to cut all trees of Amazon jungle e turn it into the major sugar cane field in the world.. Huh? Yes, believe they have a project to do it in the next few years. Unfortunately the website is in portuguese language -> https://secure.avaaz.org/po/petition/Canadeacucar_na_Amazonia_NAO/

But it is really not good idea to change the environment! Sugar cane will use all the water from the soil and in few years will became dry land just like a DESERT. GOV always stupid. Please stop thinking about money. How could you survive with lack of health? Really stupid. Disappointed!!!

[plopmeister]

It breaks my heart to see red shirts being used like this...

It is little more than payback to the rich elite in the area....Farmers have a free will to grow what they want when they want..

[bigbamboo]

Perhaps with the nation's rice industry wrecked, at least for the time being, they could make Thailand the sugar hub of ASEAN?

[Bodrules]

Doesn't look like a very good idea, looked at the 5 year trend on the ICE (NYC) commodity exchange raw sugar (#11 contract) is going for US$331 per short ton (US$364 metric tonne), prices have been declining since July 2010 from a peak of US$650 per metric tonne.

Data from here - http://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=sugar&months=60

[Bkungbank]

Doesn't look like a very good idea, looked at the 5 year trend on the ICE (NYC) commodity exchange raw sugar (#11 contract) is going for US$331 per short ton (US$364 metric tonne), prices have been declining since July 2010 from a peak of US$650 per metric tonne.

Data from here - http://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=sugar&months=60

BUt in 2010 price for 1 Kg sugar was 23.50 THB,

in 2013 price for 1 Kg sugar is 23.50 THB who pocket the extra??

[Robby nz]

Where I come from they no longer grow the same crop year after year as this drags all the nutrients out of the soil.

Rather they rotate crops as different crops use different nutrients.

Many have now started planting legumes between crops then plowing them in as they act as a fertilizer.

This wont work under the present rice purchasing scheme as the story is to get as many crops (tons) in as possible to take advantage of the pledging price.

Yes there does need to be diversification but it needs to be phased in in order that there is still an annual income coming from the land to sustain the farmer.

[indyuk]

Some wisdom in todays posts. Indeed the agri-commodity markets have be shifting and will continue to shift in response to continuing third world development and climate change.

Today it is not safe to be a market leader by volume of produce. Best policy for an agrerian economy is to diversify gradually until a basket of diverse high quality products is achived in a viable tonnage of each agri-product's commodity market,

Thailand's range of produce and products of Casarva, Chicken, Rice, Rubber, Suggar, Prawns, Eculiptus, Teak, and Mahogany, plus the numerous manufactured agri-culinary products of Thailand set a picture of a strong and diverse agri-economy.

There are also entrepreneurial oportunities. For exaple if Thailand does get stuck with a rice mountain of Rice it could be re-processed into another commodity, perrhaps Gasohol or sizing for paper mills for example.

If you're Thai be proud of this, if a foreign farmer be envious lol.

[tingtong]

A problem I see with this and changing to other crops is that rice is a short rotation crop ready for harvest in months and therefor bringing in income quickly yet every alternative except sweet corn is a long rotation crop.

So what are the farmers going to live on till the wait for the sugar cane to mature to harvest?

however lots of these to be converted rice fields are rain fed ( no water to irrigate), and as such only produce one harvest or to simplify: one payday for the farmers.

so, surviving is just the same in a way...

and if a small farmer has 5-10 rai land, ultimately it doesnt matter too much it is sugar or rice, non will make a decent living, for sure.

[Bodrules]

Doesn't look like a very good idea, looked at the 5 year trend on the ICE (NYC) commodity exchange raw sugar (#11 contract) is going for US$331 per short ton (US$364 metric tonne), prices have been declining since July 2010 from a peak of US$650 per metric tonne.

Data from here - http://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=sugar&months=60

BUt in 2010 price for 1 Kg sugar was 23.50 THB,

in 2013 price for 1 Kg sugar is 23.50 THB who pocket the extra??

Processed sugar is a little more expensive, but the answer is, the processor and other middle men, but think yourself lucky, in the UK sugar is going for 39 baht the kg

[tingtong]

i am sure all Thai will happily pay 39thb for 1kg sugar....just give them UK salary first!!

[billd766]

Where I come from they no longer grow the same crop year after year as this drags all the nutrients out of the soil.

Rather they rotate crops as different crops use different nutrients.

Many have now started planting legumes between crops then plowing them in as they act as a fertilizer.

This wont work under the present rice purchasing scheme as the story is to get as many crops (tons) in as possible to take advantage of the pledging price.

Yes there does need to be diversification but it needs to be phased in in order that there is still an annual income coming from the land to sustain the farmer.

Back in 1959 during my last year at school on afternoon a week was set over for the senior year to learn about garderning and farming. One part was devoted to explaing all about crop rotation and every 4th year part of the land should be left fallow to recover. I didn't find it interesting at the time but it IS a good idea.

At home here we generally grow cassava though we have grown corn once or twice. The biggest problem around here in Khampaeng Phet is that there doesn't seem to be an agricultural college or anywhere to find advice on what to grow.

Add to that if you grow different crops there may not be a local market for them.

[Robby nz]

Saw the other day where a farmer, instead of filling paddy to grow fruit trees had planted the trees in large pipes, took this photo.

Thought it was a good idea, takes a lot less soil and good quality soil can be used.