Farmers In Northeast Bring Back The Buffalo

[george]

Farmers in Northeast bring back the buffalo

After fighting with spiralling oil costs, northeastern farmers have decided to ditch their petrol-driven tractors for grass-fed water buffaloes.

"They're cheaper, more environmentally friendly and better for our income," Prawat Khamphakdi, chairman of the Roi Et Thai Buffalo Conservation Club, said yesterday.

He has led his neighbours in promoting buffalo-powered farming.

Prawat said oil had reached Bt30 per litre yesterday, the highest level ever in Roi Et's Chiang Kwan district, which made daily necessities more expensive.

"With the same cash, we now can get only half the oil we used to get. So we can no longer use motorised equipment for farming. We have to cut all unnecessary costs as much as possible, and the buffalo option is one good way out," he said.

The club has enlisted 100 households with some 300 head of buffalo, and all of them have agreed to farm with their draft animals, he said.

"It takes a longer time to prepare the soil for planting rice, but the natural fertiliser from buffaloes means farmers pay less for chemical fertilisers.

"In total, the reduction in cost comes from not using oil and from lower fertiliser payments. It might also ease the national oil crisis," Prawat said.

Min Phanjan, 56, of Ban Huay Yarng in Si Sa Ket's Phu Sing district, said he owned a 20-rai rice farm and had decided to till it with buffaloes, unlike previous seasons, due to the high oil price.

He took almost a month to finish ploughing his paddy.

"With this traditional procedure, you can turn up the field only in the morning and evening. The middle of the day is too sunny and too hot for buffaloes to work. So it takes a longer time," Min said.

Suwit Paengmak of Ban Klang in Si Sa Ket said he had taken much less time than Min as he had only seven rai. Apart from being happy to save costs, he is proud of himself for taking on his 12-year-old boy to work the farm with him. It is all part of the preservation of traditional farming, he said.

Roi Et agriculture officer Somwong Khongphet said the energy-saving initiative of the farmers should be supported by the government since it is also represented sustainable development.

--The Nation 2006-05-14

[bannork]

You also have to train the buffalo how to plough, turn left, right,etc. It takes time, most buffalo breeders nowadays are in it for the beef only, I don't think many buffaloes can still plough.

In our area ploughing costs 350 baht per rai, whether it's by tractor or the handle- bar walking plough favoured by most farmers.

But bring back the plough pullers, defecating as they plough, no need for that expensive chemical fertiliser.

As a side point, in my view herding buffaloes is a lot easier than cows, more placid, slower in pace, ability to eat almost any type of grass or undergrowth, there's people in our village who can barely walk or see still herding buffaloes. They'd have no chance with cows.

[ratcatcher]

A friend of mine presently in England had an email from his Thai girlfriend in Roi Et asking him to send money for her father's sick mechanical buffalo. She said he did not have enough money to buy petrol to feed it.

Now he will have to go back to the four legged kind. Better for an Isaan farmer to get bullshit from a buffalo than a TRT politician

Edited May 14, 2006 by ratcatcher

[jdinasia]

I was just gonna ask ... is it cheaper to fix a sick tractor or a sick buffalo?

[VanZam]

A friend of mine presently in England had an email from his Thai girlfriend in Roi Et asking him to send money for her father's sick mechanical buffalo. She said he did not have enough money to buy petrol to feed it.

Didn't take long for the Thai girls to catch on to this potential money maker did it.

[Ricardo]

A further advantage is that water-buffaloes can manufacture next-year's new model on-site, without the need for a big expensive factory, or dealer-network.

[bdenner]

You also have to train the buffalo how to plough, turn left, right,etc. It takes time, most buffalo breeders nowadays are in it for the beef only, I don't think many buffaloes can still plough.

In our area ploughing costs 350 baht per rai, whether it's by tractor or the handle- bar walking plough favoured by most farmers.

But bring back the plough pullers, defecating as they plough, no need for that expensive chemical fertiliser.

As a side point, in my view herding buffaloes is a lot easier than cows, more placid, slower in pace, ability to eat almost any type of grass or undergrowth, there's people in our village who can barely walk or see still herding buffaloes. They'd have no chance with cows.

We're over on the East side of Ban Dung and just paid 3920 Baht to have 14 rai ploughed, 4 of which was overgrown with dense brush, with a large tractor. 280/rai - Only took the guy 5 hours so I'll stick to the mechanical method for the time being. In saying so I hope we use a cleaner tractor next time as this belched black smoke through the entire operation.

[RamdomChances]

"They're cheaper, more environmentally friendly and better for our income," Prawat Khamphakdi, [b]chairman of the Roi Et Thai Buffalo Conservation Club[/b], said yesterday.

Well he is the Chairman what do you think he would say!. I think the only part of the statment that hold any water is the "enviromentaly friendly" bit, I'm not sure how much a mature, trained buffalo for ploughing would be. Do you need one or two?

The one guy spent a month ploughing 20 rai, when he would of spent a day with a "walk behind" tractor and used mabye 200 bhat of fuel. Buffalos need to eat and they need to eat every day all year, there is usually not enough forage so feeding rice straw at half a bail a day (minimum) would set you back 10 bhat a day, 300 a month. Plus the value of extra labour, possibility of not getting the crops in on time

"It takes a longer time to prepare the soil for planting rice, but the natural fertiliser from buffaloes means farmers pay less for chemical fertilisers.

The ammount of "fertiliser" from a buffalo plouging would be negligible, in fact so negligible its laughable. If I took the whole years manure production from our farm (say 70 head) it still would not be enough to fertilise 30 rai also the fertiliser is geared to the production of specific crops and applied at specific times ( mabye one type before planting, an other when the crop is starting to grow ect) obviously you dont get this with buffalo. Usually chicken or cow manure is applied before plouging as a soli preperation/improver and then specific fertilisers are then used as the crop develepes

Plouging by tractor depends on the type of plouging being done. Around here is up to 350 bhat/rai for the big 3 disc ploughing (needs a big ford type tractor) and 185 bhat/rai for the small disc (7 disc's on large tractor or 3 on small) No one really uses the hand helds around here as we dont really grow that much rice and they are'nt sutible for heavy duty plouging.