Growing Organic Rice on Two Hectares, Profitable?

[FACTOR]

This is a very general question from a complete novice, but I need to get the ball rolling, so any serious replies would be appreciated:

My wife would like to grow organic rice on about two hectares (12 rai, correct?) of land we already own and which is already rice land.

She says for now she just wants to grow enough in a small part of the land to supply our family with organic rice, but I wonder if we should expand it to the full two hectares and try to make it profitable. Would this be profitable? Even if it brought in a small amount of money, that would be fine. Is it worth the effort?

Any ideas? Suggestions?

Thank you.

[green job]

Max 10 ton,but organic much less. Sounds like a pipe dream to me . You need more land

[FACTOR]

"max ten ton..." What does that mean? The maximum yield I could get is 10 tons of rice but organic rice would be a lower yield?

Ok, next I'll try to find out how much I could sell 10 tons of rice for.

Sorry, like I said I'm new to this.

Thanks for your reply.

[green job]

"max ten ton..." What does that mean? The maximum yield I could get is 10 tons of rice but organic rice would be a lower yield?

Ok, next I'll try to find out how much I could sell 10 tons of rice for.

Sorry, like I said I'm new to this.

Thanks for your reply.

Well if everything goes right that would be the max yield. I have no idea about organic. It will be lower but the selling price is higher.

Look there is so much involved Quality of land plus plus plus many many costs

If you know nothing about it leave it. There is a fine line in the profit

[FACTOR]

"max ten ton..." What does that mean? The maximum yield I could get is 10 tons of rice but organic rice would be a lower yield?

Ok, next I'll try to find out how much I could sell 10 tons of rice for.

Sorry, like I said I'm new to this.

Thanks for your reply.

Well if everything goes right that would be the max yield. I have no idea about organic. It will be lower but the selling price is higher.

Look there is so much involved Quality of land plus plus plus many many costs

If you know nothing about it leave it. There is a fine line in the profit

Well, I don't know much about it, but my wife is a trained plant biologist and works for the ministry of science and technology in the department that works on rice prodction, AND the brother in law is a bona fide, salt of the earth, 100% rice farmer. So we've got the expertise there. I just looked up rice prices in Thailand and if you say I can get ten tons off of 2 hectares, the price I calculate might be worth it for me.

[green job]

"max ten ton..." What does that mean? The maximum yield I could get is 10 tons of rice but organic rice would be a lower yield?

Ok, next I'll try to find out how much I could sell 10 tons of rice for.

Sorry, like I said I'm new to this.

Thanks for your reply.

Well if everything goes right that would be the max yield. I have no idea about organic. It will be lower but the selling price is higher.

Look there is so much involved Quality of land plus plus plus many many costs

If you know nothing about it leave it. There is a fine line in the profit

Well, I don't know much about it, but my wife is a trained plant biologist and works for the ministry of science and technology in the department that works on rice prodction, AND the brother in law is a bona fide, salt of the earth, 100% rice farmer. So we've got the expertise there. I just looked up rice prices in Thailand and if you say I can get ten tons off of 2 hectares, the price I calculate might be worth it for me.

Well with all due respect,why are you asking? Good luck you will need it

[FACTOR]

"max ten ton..." What does that mean? The maximum yield I could get is 10 tons of rice but organic rice would be a lower yield?

Ok, next I'll try to find out how much I could sell 10 tons of rice for.

Sorry, like I said I'm new to this.

Thanks for your reply.

Well if everything goes right that would be the max yield. I have no idea about organic. It will be lower but the selling price is higher.

Look there is so much involved Quality of land plus plus plus many many costs

If you know nothing about it leave it. There is a fine line in the profit

Well, I don't know much about it, but my wife is a trained plant biologist and works for the ministry of science and technology in the department that works on rice prodction, AND the brother in law is a bona fide, salt of the earth, 100% rice farmer. So we've got the expertise there. I just looked up rice prices in Thailand and if you say I can get ten tons off of 2 hectares, the price I calculate might be worth it for me.

Well with all due respect,why are you asking? Good luck you will need it

Why am I asking? I thought I'd try to get a broad perspective.

[FACTOR]

Why am I asking? I thought I'd try to get a broad perspective.

[pigeonjake]

is your rice land certified organic,? i know in the uk it has to chemical free for a number of year before it can be called organic,

is the land that borders yourst organic?

if no to question 2 how are you going to stop contamination?

can you get organic seed rice?

sorry to be a little blunt, but i personaly dont think it would work, the water will be contaminated by the farmers round you, using there chemicals,

saying that im no rice grower, just looking at what the cerification body might ask you, as it would have to be certified organic,

jake

[FACTOR]

Thanks, Jake,

Yes, you pose some good questions.

[loong]

The very first thing that you must do, the most important thing is to research the market.

You may be able to grow organic rice, but where will you sell it? Will you be able to sell it at a premium price?

Will you be able to sell organic paddy, or will you need to process it. Can you process it yourself? If you send it to a local processor to de-husk and polish, it will certainly be contaminated with non organic rice.

Grow for your own consumption and learn. When that is working well, look to increase production after checking out the market

[FACTOR]

The very first thing that you must do, the most important thing is to research the market.

You may be able to grow organic rice, but where will you sell it? Will you be able to sell it at a premium price?

Will you be able to sell organic paddy, or will you need to process it. Can you process it yourself? If you send it to a local processor to de-husk and polish, it will certainly be contaminated with non organic rice.

Grow for your own consumption and learn. When that is working well, look to increase production after checking out the market

"Grow for your own consumption and learn..."

That's good advice. Thank you.

[samsensam]

are you talking about real organic farming or thai organic farming? there is a family run restaurant near my place that advertises 'organic food' and i know for a fact they buy produce from the local market...

[FACTOR]

are you talking about real organic farming or thai organic farming? there is a family run restaurant near my place that advertises 'organic food' and i know for a fact they buy produce from the local market...

I'm talking about not using any pesticides or chemical fertilisers on my crop. At this point, I'm not sure if some of the neighbour farmers use chemicals which could seep into our land. I need to look into that. I admit the organic farming we are looking to do might not be up to the standards of organic farming in western countries, but it might be better than nothing.

You say the family advertises "organic food" in their restaurant yet they buy at the local market. Are you sure that even though they buy at the local market it is not organic? In my community, there is a dedicated local organic market and some of the stalls in the normal market say they are selling organic produce.

[cooked]

Googling 'integrated rice farming' might bring you some ideas about cultivating with less chemicals. There is a cooperative in Surin somewhere. I was going to try a rai but realised that I was going to do it all by myself as my very experienced family poo poohed the idea which is similar to the way the did it 30 years ago. I also have doubts about how you will sell it for a premium, the average Thai won't care / will not be willing to pay an additional few Bahts/Kg.for your exotic stuff.

Worth trying on a rai or two before going into full production I would say.

[Benjie]

are you talking about real organic farming or thai organic farming? there is a family run restaurant near my place that advertises 'organic food' and i know for a fact they buy produce from the local market...

I'm talking about not using any pesticides or chemical fertilisers on my crop. At this point, I'm not sure if some of the neighbour farmers use chemicals which could seep into our land. I need to look into that. I admit the organic farming we are looking to do might not be up to the standards of organic farming in western countries, but it might be better than nothing.

You say the family advertises "organic food" in their restaurant yet they buy at the local market. Are you sure that even though they buy at the local market it is not organic? In my community, there is a dedicated local organic market and some of the stalls in the normal market say they are selling organic produce.

Your wife is specifically a plant biologist for Rice (like you want to plant) and she doesn't know any of this?

[Yme]

This might be helpful

Quickly realising that the constant use of traditional ferlisers left large concentrations of salt in the soil which impedes rice growth and recognising the increasing global demand for chemical-free (organic) rice, Ms Panyadilok set out to find solutions to both problems.

In the five years since she has developed a solution to both, resulting in a 40 per cent reduction in production costs and a 20 per cent increase in harvest yield.

Along the way she has also perfected a simple method of alternate wetting and drying (AWD) cultivation that dramatically reduces the amount of water needed to grow a bountiful rice crop.

Source Thai Rice Farmers Income Boosted From Organic, AWD Cultivation http://www.establishmentpost.com/thai-rice-farmers-income-boosted-from-organic-awd-cultivation/#ixzz3cj7dW5TE

[KevinB]

Thought i'd jump in quickly on this topic.

There is organic and ORGANIC. and as always they mean different things to different people.

if you want CERTIFIED ORGANIC - the process is long (3 to 5 seasons) and arduous and the Inspection Costs are high.

If you want to grow things without chemicals - or reduced chemicals you can start right away but you will struggle.

Now to the market - CERTIFIED ORGANIC = very high premium.

Grown organically on the basis of your own word and honour - marginal price increase.

in the later category there is a very interesting trend in Thailand and it appears to be working. You get linked to an urban family of some means and establish an on-line relationship and at harvest time deliver direct the harvested crop direct to them. These relationship are quite interesting in some case the grower posts pics on line of the crop growing and posts them on line. In some cases the family even visits. More to do with Social media (and the impact on our lives) than farming.

I get the English daily every day in Bangkok and have read on two or three occasions about this scheme over the Xmas and Song Kra (when I was back home with the family on holiday - I, like many of us, travel a lot with my job). if i was home at the moment I could scan the article and send it to you. But i imagine you can get the stories by going on-line with a bit of clever Googling and Bing-ing.

Hope that helps. good Luck. If you'd like to find out more about CERTIFICATION - then i suggest you research it on line - very very difficult but with perseverance - MAJOR REWARD per kg but I'd agree with earlier posts you may be too small and have too little production to progress. I have come across in my work a community project in Vietnam where a whole rice scheme (250ha) went organic - took 4 years to get the certification - they now supply a boutique organic outlet in Paris with organic brown rice (another niche market by the way - rare and unusual grains). Go to an up-scale market in Thailand or organic / green food shop and price purple rice.

[Muhendis]

I am growing rice on 22 Rai but I am not a "real" rice producer. I am what could be referred to as a hobby farmer. Without my additional income there's no way I could live by farming this small plot of land. My wife and I are enthusiastically committed to organic methods and we grow Jasmine rice. Our best yield last year was 0.89 tonnes/Rai and was worth 14 Baht/Kg. The problems faced by people like yourself who want to make rice a profitable enterprise are best summed up below.

Let us say the average rice farm consists of 24 rai and a good yield is one ton/rai. With the current price of 15 baht/Kg your farmer will have a single crop income of just under £7,000 (converted to GBP for easier understanding of the wealth) before costs are subtracted, to last him one year.

To be profitable you would need at least 100 Rai and plenty of mechanisation etc.

[attrayant]

If you want to grow things without chemicals - or reduced chemicals you can start right away but you will struggle.

Just to clear up the language here, of course it's impossible to grow anything "chemical-free". What is usually meant by that phrase is growing without synthetic pesticides. Organic pesticides are still permitted. What is worse, organic pesticides tend to be more toxic, less effective (meaning you have to use them in greater concentrations) and less discriminating (they burn whatever they touch unlike synthetic pesticides which can target the specific pests and leave the crops unscathed). Then there's the option of using no pesticides at all, but I wouldn't be hopeful of an abundant crop in that case.

Now to the market - CERTIFIED ORGANIC = very high premium. Grown organically on the basis of your own word and honour - marginal price increase.

in the later category there is a very interesting trend in Thailand and it appears to be working.

I'm curious about this - is there actually a local market for this or would the grower be looking at exporting overhead as well?

[ericthai]

Going organic and then trying to sell organic locally will be a challenge. You need to speak to the local rice mills if they will pay more for organic or they dont care and just take in any rice.

If you local mills will not pay more then you need to call around and check with other mills but then you have transport costs to take the rice to another mill.

I checked with the local mills in our area in Surin several years ago when we stopped using chemicals when growing our rice. Had nothing to do with getting more money for our crop but for

our own health as we keep enough rice for ourselves for the year and enough for planting next year and then sell the rest to the mill. The mills said they pay the same of all rice organic or not.

We average about 400-500 kgs per rai. Getting 1 ton per rai is very difficult, I haven't heard of anyone in our area that gets more than 700kgs per rai most average about 500-600kgs using fertilizers.

Since you wife knows all about rice I would just let her handle things and you stay out of the way. My wife has grown rice all her life, she handles everything and I stay out of the way. She has taught me allot

about growing rice, when to harvest, how to plant, how to harvest etc. It's not easy work and no real money to be made unless you have over 100 rai.