NLA’s agriculture committee urges government to rein in uses of chemical fertilisers by farmers

[Lite Beer]

NLA’s agriculture committee urges government to rein in uses of chemical fertilisers by farmers

BANGKOK, 20 June 2015 (NNT) - The National Legislative Assembly’s committee on agricultural affairs has urged the government to be more active in controlling farmers’ use of chemical fertiliser.

Chairman of the NLA’s agriculture committee Gen. Danai Meechuwet has chaired a seminar on the management of chemical fertilizer and sustainable self-reliance of farmers.

According to Gen. Danai, the agricultural sector continues to play an important role in Thailand’s economy as the majority of the people are farmers.

He added that the sustainable development of the agricultural sector is, therefore, crucial for the development of the economy and the society.

However, changes in the farming methods, which have relied more on chemicals have driven costs up and led farmers to be highly indebted while chemical residues have also become a health problem for farmers as well as consumers.

Gen. Danai stated that the government should find more measures to promote appropriate uses of chemical and chemical fertiliser in order to save costs and improve the quality of life.

-- NNT 2015-06-21

[djjamie]

They should just copy and paste this article into publication stories every few months.

I have read this type of story for years in Thailand, but nothing ever changes.

Lets hope that under the proactivity if the Junta the next article will be "Chemical fertiliser companies closing down due to poor demand"

Of course the Junta would be blamed for that as well though.

[eliotness]

The alternative to chemical fertilizers is organic waste. As far as I see, in rural Isaan, there are very few dairy cows kept in confined areas so their waste can be collected in slurry tanks and then sprayed onto the fields. Also pig breeding is largely small scale, with very few farms collecting it in sufficient quantities to sell to rice farmers. In fact, in 10 years in this part of Thailand I have never seen one slurry tank being towed by a tractor. There is of course plenty of chicken shit available.

However all these animal wastes are only really rich in nitrogen and furthermore large scale producers will be feeding their cattle/pigs/chickens non-organic feed which will have a trace heavy metal content ( some heavy metals, albeit in trace amounts are essential for animal & human health ) but the frequent use of such fertilizers could have negative effects on the crops. Only animal waste from organically reared animals, in limited amounts, is good for the soil. Rock phosphate, i.e. naturally occurring, is good for the lower pH soils and should be cheap, but I have never seen it for sale here.

The large scale composting of household waste (food) outside of Bangkok doesn't seem to be being pushed by the government which is such a waste (of waste). Sewage sludge from municipal sewage works caused many problems when sprayed onto farmland in the UK ( and I expect Europe too ) because of toxins put "down the drain". Knowing how Thais regard waste, I would suggest that the use of any municipal sewage sludge should be strictly limited and regularly monitored by chemical analysis.

There is of course a group of people, quite rich and well connected, that making a very good living selling expensive chemical fertilizers to the poor farmers, so there is very little, if any, chance of anything changing.