Thai rice farmers fighting debt and loss of land again, group says

[chrisandsu]

Got to feel sorry for the breadbasket of the country ! Let's remember it's a supply and demand industry , if they cut production hopefully prices will go up for them ? In the meanwhile if prices of crop has gone down 50% then surely the land price should reflect that too ?

[maoro2013]

Is the rice milled or unmilled at the time of export??

[timewilltell]

The rice industry is dominated with Mafia. Fertilizer, warehousing, milling, middlemen, loan sharks feed off uneducated farmers who do their best in difficult circumstances. It is very easy for these people to be duped and lose assets their family use to survive. If the government wants to tackle the issue it needs to take control of the entire process, set price controls on rents, fertilizer, milling costs, warehousing costs and to outlaw unregistered moneylending altogether.

There should be a decade long programme to change the modus operandi in he industry, strip it of all the hangers on and streamline the process. Meanwhile provide education programs on a widespread basis to boost variety of crop and technical know how. Couple this with a huge overhaul of the education system generally with a boost of managed cash for technical colleges to provide proper skills in demand by the marketplace and Thailand may have a chance to keep up with its neighbors who are rapidly overtaking it.

I doubt anyone with the vision will ever be in power such is the effect of the endemic corruption throughout every section of society and the comfort of corruption benefits for the rich money lenders, loan sharks and other unscrupulous people who for some reason garner respect in this twisted society.

[Muhendis]

Tell me who gets a tonne of rice per rai. I just got 500kg from 1.7 rai which exceeded the producytion of other farms near here including other land which I rent to others. Even with two crops the tonne a tonne per rai is very ambitious.

The maximum yield per rai is about one tonne. Last year I managed 0.87 tonne/rai on my best organic paddies. This year it was rubbish due to lack of rain. Believe me one tonne/rai is achievable under favourable conditions. You did well to get just under 300 kg/rai this year.

Getting back on topic the trend will be, as has been said, that farms will need to get much bigger before they can control the price. Sadly that means the small farmer will lose in the short term as has happened in many other countries.

Progress is painful.

[Sakeopete]

One of the problems of crop diversification is theft. I asked my wife years ago why people don't grow crops other than rice, cassava and corn. She replied that those crops are difficult to steal at night. My father-in-law was raising fish in a large pond and even they were stolen one night. The pond is 45m x 25m x 3m so its a good size. In addition to that one year someone cut down the neighbors 7 rai of eucalyptus trees at night.

Tough to tackle poor soil conditions and deal with theft.

[cornishcarlos]

The crux of the growing problem - reliance on farming and not education.

Dilutions of farmland ownership is guaranteed when you have more than two kids. A farmer with 50 rai can support his family a generation ago. What can a farmer do with 5 rai today? His children needs to be educated and get a full time job. Are they?

Yes many are getting higher education thanks to enormous sacrifices by their parents, in my village anyway. The farmers may be uneducated but they aren't stupid, they can see the writing on the wall. This transition period is difficult and full of problems, when the children have finished their education there is often no jobs suitable for their newly gained knowledge at least not in their home province which means leaving their elderly parents to fend for themselves while they move to the expensive cities to start a new life, not easy.

My g/f's brother was a mechanic getting 15,000 bahts a month and he worked "free" overtime with the promise of a managership down the road (ha ha ha) He and his g/f borrowed money from her sister in Japan and they took off for greener pastures in Korea. They started off at 69,000 bahts a month for both and a small room to sleep in plus rice and a shared kitchen and bath. In two years they will be making that much each after gaining experience on a mushroom farm. Almost 150,000 bahts a month vs 15,000 a month here as a mechanic plus she was working odd jobs for about 8,000 bahts a month. She never had a steady job. Not to shabby.

I've heard stories like that..

Thais love a good story