As their fields dry up, Thai farmers face the threat of financial ruin

[halloween]

Really? Since when did self-sufficiency mean relying on a handout? Farmers elsewhere face drought, especially in my country, they plan and allow for them. Subsistence farmers can't.

Not that your family are in that category. Don't I remember you saying they did quite well out of the vote-buying rice scam?

I believe your country has been known on occasion to provide and distribute a drought subsidy

Was Thailand experiencing a drought in 2012, 2013, 2014?

[halloween]

Looking for a bite? I plead ignorance and apathy, I don't know and i don't care. Market prices should determine the price of commodities, and one segment of industry shouldn't be allowed to use their numbers to extort from other taxpayers.

Maybe a good long drought is just what this country needs to shake out the inefficient and incompetent.

. If you don't know and don't care why do you talk about things that you know nothing about.

Not caring about the price of rice is a long way from not understanding fairness and efficiency.

Would you care to express your own opinions, or do you prefer to be the fly on the wall who gets to ask questions of those who do?

[473geo]

Really? Since when did self-sufficiency mean relying on a handout? Farmers elsewhere face drought, especially in my country, they plan and allow for them. Subsistence farmers can't.

Not that your family are in that category. Don't I remember you saying they did quite well out of the vote-buying rice scam?

I believe your country has been known on occasion to provide and distribute a drought subsidy

Was Thailand experiencing a drought in 2012, 2013, 2014?

"Farmers elsewhere face drought, especially in my country, they plan and allow for them"

I believe your country has been known on occasion to provide and distribute a drought subsidy

[rametindallas]

The government really should hire foreign expert help on water management. I'm sure there's much to gain from it both in times of drought and of floods.

There is some foreign help in water management, the Chinese are busily damming the mighty MeKong river.

... and so are the Thais.

First I've heard of this. Where are the Thais putting a dam on the Mekong River?

.

[halloween]

Really? Since when did self-sufficiency mean relying on a handout? Farmers elsewhere face drought, especially in my country, they plan and allow for them. Subsistence farmers can't.

Not that your family are in that category. Don't I remember you saying they did quite well out of the vote-buying rice scam?

I believe your country has been known on occasion to provide and distribute a drought subsidy

Was Thailand experiencing a drought in 2012, 2013, 2014?

"Farmers elsewhere face drought, especially in my country, they plan and allow for them"

I believe your country has been known on occasion to provide and distribute a drought subsidy

Yes, I got that. What I was asking is why your family (amongst others) were collecting a subsidy in 2012-14. Actually it wasn't a subsidy at all was it - it was bribe to vote for criminals and ignore their criminality in office.

We have serious droughts in Oz that last for years. But I've never heard of a farmer selling his produce to the government for more than market value. And I have heard of people claiming assistance that they don't need - they go to jail.

[473geo]

Oh please - you have been caught out making stuff up, laying untruths, so let's just quit the futile attempt to somehow turn me into the bad guy eh.

[PeVee1st]

Just declare the whole year to be Songkhran, there is always plenty of water to waste, among other things, during that 2-3 weeks annually.

This year was no different, 2 weeks after Songkhran whole regions are declared drought affected.

[billd766]

Just declare the whole year to be Songkhran, there is always plenty of water to waste, among other things, during that 2-3 weeks annually.

This year was no different, 2 weeks after Songkhran whole regions are declared drought affected.

It depends on where you live. In BKK down on Khao San Road where the " farang tourists" are millions of litres are wasted annually but people in BKK don't care about wasting water as it is always there at the turn of the tap. Farmers and rural people learn about water shortages at an early age.

This years in rural Khampaeng Phet there was only the traditional Songkran and even in the big village there wasn't anything like as much. There was a lot in KPP city but it wasn't too bad as most of the water came from and returned to the Ping river.