Rarely cultivated crops

[CLW]

Just out of interest, how is the situation

amongst you farmers here for some rarely cultivated crops such as:

- Sesame

- Mungbean

- Jute

- Kenaf

- Cotton

- Tabacco

- Millet for grain and sirup

Etc...

[kickstart]

I would not say rarely cultivated crops ,we have grown sesame seed ,and it is popular round here ,some rice farmers have grown it ,before the maine rains come ,and rice planting starts ,could say grown as a catch crop ,we grew it before maize , cost of harvesting is the main problem with sesame seed it has to be done by hand ,Thailand dose not have the harvesters to do a mechanical harvest ,also like a lot of Thai agricultural commodities the selling price is volatile .

Mung beans again we grew them after maize ,easy crop to grow ,but again harvesting problems ,crop does not ripen even ,harvesting can be done by pickers ,but they only pick the ripe pods ,and easy to get at pods ,really did to go over the crop at least twice ,but labour intensive .

Combining is now popular ,but very often combine not set up ,a lot is put out the back, some farmers grow them as a first crop,more drought resistant than maize , have seen them grown on rice paddies ,after the rice crop ,on heavy land can be done ,light land ,more of a problem ,drys out to quick ,again selling price is volatile .

Cotton use to be grown round here ,but disease and insects where a problem ,this was in the DDT days,not grown round here for some years now .

Tabacco, have a word with Dance a Lot, he grows it up in Petchaboon ,about 18 months ago? he did a very good photo presentation on tobacco ,look it up .

As for millet and Jute.Kenaf , a non crop for Thailand ,I would say more an African crop? than a SE Asia crop. I would say you could Google them and something might come up about them in Thailand, but not a commercial crop.

[saakura]

I would not say rarely cultivated crops ,we have grown sesame seed ,and it is popular round here ,some rice farmers have grown it ,before the maine rains come ,and rice planting starts ,could say grown as a catch crop ,we grew it before maize , cost of harvesting is the main problem with sesame seed it has to be done by hand ,Thailand dose not have the harvesters to do a mechanical harvest ,also like a lot of Thai agricultural commodities the selling price is volatile .

Mung beans again we grew them after maize ,easy crop to grow ,but again harvesting problems ,crop does not ripen even ,harvesting can be done by pickers ,but they only pick the ripe pods ,and easy to get at pods ,really did to go over the crop at least twice ,but labour intensive .

Combining is now popular ,but very often combine not set up ,a lot is put out the back, some farmers grow them as a first crop,more drought resistant than maize , have seen them grown on rice paddies ,after the rice crop ,on heavy land can be done ,light land ,more of a problem ,drys out to quick ,again selling price is volatile .

Cotton use to be grown round here ,but disease and insects where a problem ,this was in the DDT days,not grown round here for some years now .

Tabacco, have a word with Dance a Lot, he grows it up in Petchaboon ,about 18 months ago? he did a very good photo presentation on tobacco ,look it up .

As for millet and Jute.Kenaf , a non crop for Thailand ,I would say more an African crop? than a SE Asia crop. I would say you could Google them and something might come up about them in Thailand, but not a commercial crop.

Some fantastic information in your post! Always been amazed how foreigners could come to Thailand and become farmers. I have never been on a farm, but always appreciated the hard work done by farmers to bring us all the variety in our food.