Why not more self sustaining farms

[David48]

A very good question.

I have a financial interest in a farm in the south for a number of years I acquired through helping a friend.

May I ask what your 'financial interest' is?

May I also ask what exactly you have 'acquired'?

thanks

[utalkin2me]

I was thinking of yet another way to look at my argument or question. It has to do with yin and yang, give and take, action reaction.....

I don't know the specifics, but when a farmer takes a kilo of rice off his farm that he has essentially tended for many months, he then sells it to some sort of middle man from what I saw. The farmer has costs in production and labor of that kilo, and it awarded accordingly by this middleman upon selling the rice to him. I am not sure exactly what happens to the kilo of rice then? I think it is sold to other countries, so the government will assuredly make some money off of that sale as well, in the form of taxes or whatever.

So now you have just made income from your back breaking work for the government and a middle man. If we just think simply in terms of yin and tang, action/reaction (without getting too complicated), would it not be better to simple make money for yourself. It just makes logical sense to me that this would both ease your burden, and greatly increase your all important work to profit ratio. I suppose this is just all another way to say what I have already been saying

[pigeonjake]

you can say it about anything on the farm

we sell our pigs for lets say 70bht a kilo,

but by the time that pork gets to market its 165bht a kilo,,

allways the same with farming, both here and in the uk,

[slapout]

Jake the mark up from 70 baht/kilo at farm to 165/kilo at market may indicate its passing thru too many hands and each is taking part of the farmers portion.

The % loss on waste (parts/pieces not saleble) on pigs is very low compared to other livestock. The old folks use to figure their live weight pigs delivered to slaughter house were worth about 1/2+_ the retail market price to consumer. Just a passing thought i had, it may not apply or be feasable in Thai system of business, as I am not involved in hog market, i may be way wrong on my figures in todays market.

[utalkin2me]

you can say it about anything on the farm

we sell our pigs for lets say 70bht a kilo,

but by the time that pork gets to market its 165bht a kilo,,

allways the same with farming, both here and in the uk,

Right. I wasn't saying the markup is a bad thing, just that it can be avoided to a large extent resulting in less work for you.

Imo, in essence what is happening with rice is you are working hard to produce it to make somebody else rich.

If you are making somebody else rich, there has to be a "cost" there, correct? That cost being added work.

Again, this can be said about a lot of products. The only point I was trying to make is that it seems your work to standard of living ratio is a lot better if you are simply self sustaining, or perhaps sustaining yourself while producing a small amount of product you sell yourself locally.

That would be ideal imo.... so you would be self sustaining yet have a small income from say mushrooms or something similar. And the original question posed was why don't more farmers live this way, and from what I read here many do in fact live this way

Edited October 17, 2014 by utalkin2me

[loong]

Have you ever hand pumped water and transported it for your family's needs?

Well, I have, as well as the water for my plot.

I can tell you that it takes a lot of time and effort. For even a small farm, you would be pumping and transporting all day in the dry periods.

Mind you, it does keep you fit

I haven't.

But I have worked in the sun cutting the rice, which is where the question is coming from. I'll tell you what though, I will take pumping some water in a shady spot all year to even a few days of that cutting anytime. But that is just me.

There have been some good answers. I just tend to feel the price paid for the minimal amount of "luxury" isn't worth it, from what I saw. Each community is probably different though. The place I have experience with is pretty much just glorified camping. As the saying goes, "you can put lipstick on a pig...."

The thing is though, if you have a farm and are just taking care of yourself without the rice, maybe you grow hemp as mentioned, or something like mushrooms, and have some yearly income, so you can purchase things you need. But get rid of the back breaking, low income producing rice farms. That's all i'm saying. To each their own though, just wondering why more people don't do it, but many here are saying people are doing it, and giving good reasons as to why others aren't. Fair enough.

Why would you think that the pump is in a shady spot? Ok, I guess that shade can be erected.

But you are unlikely to be in shadow if you have to carry the water a long distance to where it is going to be used. Believe me, you can build up a real sweat, especially over uneven ground.

[Jotham79]

Why not use solar power ? Pressurized water, lights, the internet and a hot shower do not have to be a luxury. Buffalo can substitute for tractors and the farms are small anyway. Getting around might be a problem without a vehicle.

I do not think anyone wants to live in the Thailand of 40 years ago.

The thing is though, people are pretty much living as you describe, AND working their butts off. I just see there is an option to live with about the same quality of life without the hard work. It will still be hard work, but you will be working to support only yourself.

If you think this is such a good idea, why don't you do it? Your presumptions would carry alot more weight if you could say from experience how much better your life is. I don't think there would be anything like a similar quality of life. My BIL lived out on my farm for about 10 years with only a small solar panel for electricity and a tractor and kwai lek for farming and pumping water. I promise you his life is better now that there is power out there.

At the end of the day the Thais are just like us, they don't want there children to have to work as hard as we did, which means paying for an education and that means using your resources in the most productive way.

[cobbler]

I am sure it is different all over Thailand, but the farms I had experience with hardly seemed to turn a profit, which is why I brought this up. I suppose many of the more sophisticated farms have no problem making a profit every year though. To me it seems they are essentially working to make somebody else rich, but maybe I am mistaken.

U r so right. But thats farming , the world over its the middle man and gov that makes the real money.