One of the problems with growing different crops is the inevitable cartels which emerge to control their sale. In the area in which I live last year there was a big drive to persuade farmers to grow cucumbers for export to Japan. Many enthusiastically took part, only to find that come picking time the prices promises were dramatically reduced by the agents working together. Complaints didn't work, the relevant authorities had been paid off. They all made a loss. At least with rice you can keep the stuff to feed yourself.

This year we might try onions...

Would you say that the japanese cucumbers we buy here for a high price are grown in Thailand?

We also eat japanese cucumbers only because they aren't bitter as thai ones.

But it's the same for japanese rockmelons i guess, they fetch a very high price while grown in Thailand in secret.

Thai farmers just have to open their eyes and look abroad the borders. There's plenty of products they can grow and make much money but one has to start first.

Also the Royal project has shown what is possible and they sell it for a lower price then the thai on their markets.

But it seems the farmers didn't dare to try something new, not even for experiment.

And what's wrong with carrots? Don't they grow in Thailand? Why in BKK i see only chinese or australian cucumbers which cost the same price. So of course we go for the Aussie ones since we trust them more.

The middlemen control the Export not the farmers.

Its not as simple as they think - I once had a "Big Idea" for my rice farm in Vietnam Mekong Delta region - like in USA, we somtimes "Rotate Farm" the land to give it a break, so I decided to grown Soy Beans on my rice paddies - what a disaster, with Rice, we would harvest approx 15,000 kgs per harvest, the Soy Beans reaped 6,000kgs that harvest, the only one sthat won were the cows, they love eating the soy bean plants - back to growing rice and will never utter another word about 'rotation farming'

got to laugh at all the w idiots in here trying to blame this on the govt, farmers need to realize that if there is no water /rain then they cannot grow rice. This isnt all that hard to understand unless you dont have any mental abilities, all crops need a certain amount of water, if it is not available then you change or dont grow at all. In Australia we have the same problems, a lot of my family are on farms in regions where droughts occur, they are aware of it and grow crops accordingly, thais need to do the same thing but they simply refuse to change. You want to blame some one, then blame the farmers that refuse to do something different, they are the only ones at fault here. The govt doesnt force them to grow rice. trying to say the govt is at fault is simply bullsh*t and a way for all the red supporters to have a whinge, cant help their stupidity.

Tell that to the Koreans - they grow "Dry Rice" Indonesians grown Mountain Rice on Terraces that uses run off of rain water, not real paddies.........