Drought to damage almost half a million rice fields in central Thailand

[webfact]

Drought to damage almost half a million rice fields in Central Plain



BANGKOK: -- Drought which is affecting several parts of Thailand will ruin almost half a million rai of rice fields in the central region.

This was disclosed by Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister General Chatchai Sarikulya at a meeting yesterday to discuss the drought situation.

Gen Chatchai said rice fields likely to be affected by the water shortage are those grown off-season, while farmers who grew their seasonal crops won’t be affected as they were all harvested.

They are rice fields grown along the Chao Phraya river in the Central region, and more than 400,000 rai are expected to be damaged by drought.

According to the minister, off-season rice covered a total of 3.05 million rai along the Chao Phraya River, 1.98 million rai of which was grown within the irrigation zone and the remaining planted outside the zone.

Rice harvest is finished only for 940,000 rai of off-season rice fields,he said.

He said he has ordered the deputy permanent secretary for Agriculture and Cooperatives to work out long term water use and farming areas in all provinces by this month.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/content/154436

-- Thai PBS 2016-03-10

[kelboy]

They did get told not to plant a second crop.

[seajae]

After being told that there was not enough water the farmers ignored it and planted anyway. Ignorance is a major problem as some people simply refuse to accept the truth, in this case the farmers. While I realize farmers do need to make money they also need to accept responsibility for ignoring the warning and should not expect any compensation for their ruined crops as they are the ones that ignored what they were told, the govt offered help but they refused to accept it, the only ones responsible for this massive failure are the farmers themselves.

[apetley]

To a point. Most rice farmers in our village took the Govt advice and planted Cassava after being told water would be limited. The price for that has now dropped to breakeven and seems set to go lower so the reward for taking the advice seems to be a big fat zero or even less for maybe 8 or 9 months work.

Now is a horrible time to be a farmer in Thailand.

[tbthailand]

^^^amazing levels of empathy from a couple posters who know absolutely zero.... boggles the mind some times.

[kelboy]

Who says we know absolutely zero. I didn't know you lived on my farm?

[shirtless]

I feel for these folks , i hope the government help them out, otherwise thing as a farmer look pretty bleak.

[taony]

This was the plan all along though, wasn't it? how else will the gov't get rid of all the rotting rice in storage?

[bangon04]

To a point. Most rice farmers in our village took the Govt advice and planted Cassava after being told water would be limited. The price for that has now dropped to breakeven and seems set to go lower so the reward for taking the advice seems to be a big fat zero or even less for maybe 8 or 9 months work.

Now is a horrible time to be a farmer in Thailand.

But as loyal Thais they are following the national plan of subsistence farming Sufficiency Economy. The government will be proud of them.

[elgordo38]

To a point. Most rice farmers in our village took the Govt advice and planted Cassava after being told water would be limited. The price for that has now dropped to breakeven and seems set to go lower so the reward for taking the advice seems to be a big fat zero or even less for maybe 8 or 9 months work.

Now is a horrible time to be a farmer in Thailand.

Keep drinking the government Kool-Aid its good for you. What did they think would happen when everybody piled into growing the same crop.

[elgordo38]

This was the plan all along though, wasn't it? how else will the gov't get rid of all the rotting rice in storage?

How else will the elite "accumulate" large land banks at fire sale prices.?

[seajae]

^^^amazing levels of empathy from a couple posters who know absolutely zero.... boggles the mind some times.

I grew up on a farm in oz, all my uncles had wheat farms and when we had droughts they were a lot worse than this crap, at least they didnt waste the water and didnt take it for granted the way these idiots do. I suggest you pull your head out of you know where and try to get facts instead of sprooking crap. Aussie farmers go through droughts that last years, not months and they survive because they allow for it to happen and take precautions, something these farmers seem to be reluctant to do. Water rationing happens a lot in Australia, even in cities but here they totally ignore the fact water is running out, if these farmers actually tried to do the right thing I would be on their side but they dont, they ignore everything except what they want, they take water from the canals after being told not to then start crying when their crops fail because there is re water, sorry but I have no sympathy for stupidity and anyone trying to defend their backward and self serving practices is too moronic to even understand the facts or the truth

[Srikcir]

Meanwhile towards the end of February 2016 the Internal Trade Department launched a project to encourage Thai people to eat Thai rice. Rices will be sold by Big C department stores at a 30-50% discount to help prevent an oversupply of rice in the markets.

Good to see the government approach the rice supply issue from both ends.

[springheeled jack]

again we appear to be sadly lacking in water management this type of thing should not happen even though it is off season rice there should be sufficient water to cover the situation .

[GinBoy2]

^^^amazing levels of empathy from a couple posters who know absolutely zero.... boggles the mind some times.

I grew up on a farm in oz, all my uncles had wheat farms and when we had droughts they were a lot worse than this crap, at least they didnt waste the water and didnt take it for granted the way these idiots do. I suggest you pull your head out of you know where and try to get facts instead of sprooking crap. Aussie farmers go through droughts that last years, not months and they survive because they allow for it to happen and take precautions, something these farmers seem to be reluctant to do. Water rationing happens a lot in Australia, even in cities but here they totally ignore the fact water is running out, if these farmers actually tried to do the right thing I would be on their side but they dont, they ignore everything except what they want, they take water from the canals after being told not to then start crying when their crops fail because there is re water, sorry but I have no sympathy for stupidity and anyone trying to defend their backward and self serving practices is too moronic to even understand the facts or the truth

The problem with farming in general (yes, I'm a hispanic American grew up in the Californian central valley, a kid of farm laborers so I do know something about this) size matters, and it matters a lot.

I think that the majority of farms in Australia are in the 50-500 hectare range. That's not subsistence farming, and given a higher level of education, infrastructure and government support, farmers can survive droughts and other natural disasters.

The average farm size in Thailand is 4 hectares, slightly less in Isaan. Now, nobody is going to get rich farming 4 hectares, at best you survive. Government proclamations mean little, when all you are focused on is actually having enough to eat.

1st world morality, ethics and moral holier than thou, cuts nothing on that 4 hectare farm!

[Fookhaht]

Meanwhile towards the end of February 2016 the Internal Trade Department launched a project to encourage Thai people to eat Thai rice. Rices will be sold by Big C department stores at a 30-50% discount to help prevent an oversupply of rice in the markets.

Good to see the government approach the rice supply issue from both ends.

Now if we can just get enough water to boil it...

[slapout]

As farm families grew in size, just to profide labor for the family size farm, they created a problem of not enough ''farmable land'' avaliable for the offspring they produced and needed, intially. Farm size had to increase and the farmer had to multi crop , run cattle, and work off the farm duing the bad years. (droughts, late freeze, pests, etc)

This lead to machinery size increase so labor number was reduced and the family farm was normally taken over by 1 or 2 family members and the rest of the siblings found work in the city, manufactoring, etc.Thailand has little work for farm trained /raised individuals and each family elder (farm owner) who dies leaves less farmable land for his heirs to scratch out a living on. Tech schools are considered for low class labor, add cost of same and you have a huge number of untrained shade tree mechanics who do not not understand repair vs buy entire replacement.

It appears Thailand is trying to prove the rest of the world is wrong and they are right in their approach to finding a solution to a problem that has been solved in many countries by these methods as well as planting crops that are suited for soil and weatherconditions of specific areas