Wise owner of an organic farm spills the beans on how to survive drought

[webfact]

Wise owner of an organic farm spills the beans on how to survive drought
Pratch Rujivanarom
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- THE KEY factors to surviving the drought are to have additional sources of income, adopt organic polyculture farming and have good water management, said Chatchana Pradtanaruk, owner of Ban Chatjane organic farm.

As the drought situation this year is very serious, the Royal Irrigation Department has issued warnings against planting dry season rice crops to all farmers in the Chao Phraya River Basin because there is not enough water for agriculture.

While other farmers are suffering heavily from the severe drought, Chatchana revealed that even though his farm was affected by the water scarcity, it had not seriously affected him economically. His farm was still productive during the drought, despite the dramatic reduction in rice production.

"I mainly grow and sell organic rice, but I also keep honey bees, grow organic vegetables and raise pheasants and peacocks to sell as pets. These activities provide me additional sources of income when we cannot rely on rice production any more," he said.

He stated that in this dry season he had to reduce rice cultivation to only 30 rai from overall land of 200 rai due to the water shortage. But in the time of drought, he could manage the small amount of water stock in the pond on his farm to grow vegetables that consume less water than rice. Furthermore, no water was needed for beekeeping.

"I have to do almost nothing to keep bees as they feed on the weed flower nectar that is plentiful on the organic farm.

This is the strong point of organic farming. No chemicals used, so the bees are safe from pesticides and there are many weeds to provide them a source of nectar. Furthermore, it does not require water to feed them." he said.

A survey of Ban Chatjane farm revealed well-managed land usage as the farm allocated some of its land as a pond to store water. There was a small corner for beehives and pheasant cages, and the land was spotted with vegetable plots and several types of weed.

By having the pond on his land, Chatchana said another key success to survive the drought was wise water management.

"I store the water within the pond and calculate the water level before planting anything. This way I can manage the water supply to suit the water usage within the farm," he said.

He revealed that by opening the organic farm, he could reduce his budget significantly, as he revealed

that the budget for one rai of organic paddy field was only Bt3,000 - compared to the average budget for one rai of non-organic paddy field at around Bt10,000. He also revealed that the budget for organic vegetables was also lower than in non-organic farming as well.

"This is because we don't have to pay for chemical fertiliser as we make our own natural fertiliser.

We also don't have to use pesticides and herbicides that are not only cheaper for us but safer to consumer health," he said.

Ban Chatjane organic farm is the leader of the organic farmer network in Pichit, Kamphaeng Phet, Sukhothai and Phitsanulok. It has more than 100 farmers and has an online network over which to sell their products to consumers directly.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Wise-owner-of-an-organic-farm-spills-the-beans-on--30272998.html


-- The Nation 2015-11-16

[ezzra]

If this story is true, than kudos to this farmer who thinks forward and deploy a lateral thinking

of the future instead of standing in line for a government's handouts..

Thailand need more like him, give him a medal and make him a model framer to immolate....

[maoro2013]

I guess if the farmers had alternative sources of income, why would they bother to farm in the first place.

[maoro2013]

Further to0 the above, if the THB10,000 is the cost to operate for one rai, then he was an extremely inefficient in his previous practises.

[Doc46]

If this story is true, than kudos to this farmer who thinks forward and deploy a lateral thinking

of the future instead of standing in line for a government's handouts..

Thailand need more like him, give him a medal and make him a model framer to immolate....

I think there maybe a big problem ,,,Where in Thailand are you going to find a farmer who thinks /plans/works like him?

[whatproblem]

The key to this is to have 200 rai to start and enough money to diversify,not all farmers have 200 rai

[zyphodb]

If this story is true, than kudos to this farmer who thinks forward and deploy a lateral thinking

of the future instead of standing in line for a government's handouts..

Thailand need more like him, give him a medal and make him a model framer to immolate....

This made me laugh, do you think the farmer would really like being Immolated?

[zyphodb]

The key to this is to have 200 rai to start and enough money to diversify,not all farmers have 200 rai

Quite right, If you cant make money on 200 Rai you have a big problem, where I live & for most of the rest of the Country the average farm size is 10 Rai or even less... You try making a living even without a drought on that...

[SOTIRIOS]

.....if you have a pile of money to explore all those options it helps too....

...if you have dirt......and debt...maybe just an unreachable 'ideal'....

....this takes planning....

[springheeled jack]

its good to see some people are using their brains I am all for organic farming it really is the way to go and more people should be participating .

[billd766]

If this story is true, than kudos to this farmer who thinks forward and deploy a lateral thinking

of the future instead of standing in line for a government's handouts..

Thailand need more like him, give him a medal and make him a model framer to immolate....

I don't see why it would not be true and there are Google references but they point to the Nation website.

Unfortunately my Thai is not good enough to read and write then search online in Thai.

I believe it to be true and I live in Khampaeng Phet province but at the far end of it.

[lucky11]

If this story is true, than kudos to this farmer who thinks forward and deploy a lateral thinking

of the future instead of standing in line for a government's handouts..

Thailand need more like him, give him a medal and make him a model framer to immolate....

This made me laugh, do you think the farmer would really like being Immolated?

Beat me to it - I would rather be emulated than immolated, quite a difference!! If every farmer immolated themselves there wouldn't be any farmers left.

[HerbalEd]

I guess if the farmers had alternative sources of income, why would they bother to farm in the first place.

The article is about alternative "agricultural" sources of income.

[HerbalEd]

If this story is true, than kudos to this farmer who thinks forward and deploy a lateral thinking

of the future instead of standing in line for a government's handouts..

Thailand need more like him, give him a medal and make him a model framer to immolate....

Well ... if your post is true, you make a good point.

[nev]

The key to this is to have 200 rai to start and enough money to diversify,not all farmers have 200 rai

Quite right, If you cant make money on 200 Rai you have a big problem, where I live & for most of the rest of the Country the average farm size is 10 Rai or even less... You try making a living even without a drought on that...

Mate my wife has about 200 rai and I can tell you, you can also lose big too having such a large holding when drought or other things that affect farming some of which is not under your control, she rents the farms out now as farming is to risky at the moment.

[The Deerhunter]

I think the three points made in this article are that (1) This guy has downsized on rice because he does not have the water, (2) has wisely dedicated part of his land area to a water storage pond/dam/tank, and (3) has diversified into less water thirsty crops and livestock projects. He is additionally capitalizing on his higher bee numbers because he does not use pesticides and has land fallow in weeds. He does not have an alternative income to farming as one poster suggested. He is still farming but using his imagination and ingenuity to work around the reality of water restriction. Very un-Thai to not just ignore gov't advice, plant a rice crop anyway and pray for rain and blame someone else when it does not come. Good on him. It's called planning. He is just a darned smart, good farmer. A survivor, not a complainer. He deserves emulating, not immolating. (Sorry. I couldn't resist the last part.)

For our property, we just resurrected an old un-used well, built 19,500 litres of concrete ring tank storage next to it and are connecting it into our irrigation reticulation system to supplement our pond which will be under it's highest load ever this dry season. It is going to be a difficult two to three years until national water storage is built up after the previous government dumped all the then-surplus water early 2014 in an ill-considered and un-necessary panic to prevent a third year of floods. Now we will be having at least three years of drought, at the very least, with the third year starting in January. That is, unless the 2016 (2559) monsoons come early, and heavy. Then people will be flooded again. (BTW. Then they will be inundated, not immolated.) Sorry again. 555

Edited November 16, 2015 by The Deerhunter

[farmerjo]

Nice to see the odd news article making it to the farming forum.

.

[pigeonjake]

The key to this is to have 200 rai to start and enough money to diversify,not all farmers have 200 rai

Quite right, If you cant make money on 200 Rai you have a big problem, where I live & for most of the rest of the Country the average farm size is 10 Rai or even less... You try making a living even without a drought on that...

hi,

we make very good money on just 2 rai of land,

you can see us at thaifarmlife.com and look at us on youtube,

we have a small pig farm that buys in piglets, grows them out to 100+kilo have them slaughterd at a proper slaughter house and sell our own pork in my wifes shop,

we cut out the middle man

we buy our feed direct from the mills at cost price not retail, we do sell a little feed but not to much we didnt want to go down that road,

but it can be done,

jake

[zyphodb]

If, like my wife's land, its very close to the village, they are not going to let you have a smelly pig farm...