Farmers shouldn’t have to sacrifice their land to save Bangkok from floods

[webfact]

BURNING ISSUE

Farmers shouldn’t have to sacrifice their land to save Bangkok from floods

Piyaporn Wongruang
The Nation

 

BANGKOK: -- Fears of more flooding in the Chao Phraya Basin have subsided for now after the Royal Irrigation Department (RID) announced that water levels in the river had fallen since the beginning of the week.

 

Pressure has eased on the Chao Phraya Dam in Chai Nat province, which regulates the flow of the channel as it sweeps across the plains to Bangkok and into the sea in Samut Prakan province.

However, the RID added that, since a depression was forecast, it would not be lowering its guard by cutting the rate of discharge from the dam. That rate stands at nearly 2,300 cubic metres of water per second, which gives the RID drainage capacity to handle increased upstream flow in the coming days. 

 

Full story: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Farmers-shouldnt-have-to-sacrifice-their-land-to-s-30297633.html

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2016-10-14

[MaxLee]

42 minutes ago, webfact said:

Farmers shouldn’t have to sacrifice their land to save Bangkok from floods

 

It's been like that for years....

[NongKhaiKid]

Why shouldn't they, isn't Bkk the centre of the known universe ?

Never much reaction to or action on flooding until it's lapping at Bkk's door.

[SaintLouisBlues]

There are more votes in Bangkok than the provinces

[trogers]

I was here in 2526 (1983) when Bangkok was flooded for months.

 

Yes, save those rice fields and shave off a couple of annual GDP percentage.

 

[kannot]

32 minutes ago, SaintLouisBlues said:

There are more votes in Bangkok than the provinces

i think the Thaksin era can prove u wrong

[impulse]

54 minutes ago, NongKhaiKid said:

Why shouldn't they, isn't Bkk the centre of the known universe ?

Never much reaction to or action on flooding until it's lapping at Bkk's door.

 

Flood some low lying farmland, and you lose a few thousand $$ an acre.

 

Flood Bangkok and it's $$ billions in damages.

 

Stinks for the farmers, but it's simple economics.

[kannot]

12 minutes ago, trogers said:

I was here in 2526 (1983) when Bangkok was flooded for months.

 

Yes, save those rice fields and shave off a couple of annual GDP percentage.

 

bet it was interesting then?

[trogers]

5 minutes ago, kannot said:

bet it was interesting then?

 

Sure was when your bus stops at Thonglor or Fortune Town, and you take a boat from there on...

[HooHaa]

And the flooded land gets covered in a rich silt that makes the land that much more productive in the long run. 

[fruitman]

1 hour ago, SaintLouisBlues said:

There are more votes in Bangkok than the provinces

 

Yup but the Bangkokians are not so stupid to sell them for 500 baht. They must have brains in that city.

[halloween]

Surely the concept of a 'flood plain' is not that hard to grasp, even for rice farmers. "Flood mitigation" by the dams might be a bit harder.

[whatproblem]

Pay the farmers compensation and not let the middlemen steal it

[trogers]

1 hour ago, impulse said:

 

Flood some low lying farmland, and you lose a few thousand $$ an acre.

 

Flood Bangkok and it's $$ billions in damages.

 

Stinks for the farmers, but it's simple economics.

 

Not real stinks for farmers.

 

Their children in Bangkok would phone them that they have no money to send back. Bangkok flooded, no customers, more expense than income.

 

That's the real stinks.

[robblok]

1 hour ago, impulse said:

 

Flood some low lying farmland, and you lose a few thousand $$ an acre.

 

Flood Bangkok and it's $$ billions in damages.

 

Stinks for the farmers, but it's simple economics.

I agree 100% and I was flooded longer because of downtown BKK. Its just the way it is and logical. You can't flood the economical heart of the country. It would be so damaging. So just sacrifice the farmers is a far better option. However the compensation for doing so should be a lot higher. This will also increase the governments efforts to build better water management infrastructure. 

 

Because if its too cheap to flood the farmers why invest. 

[TEFLKrabi]

2 hours ago, kannot said:

i think the Thaksin era can prove u wrong

More votes in BKK but less seats. 

[trogers]

29 minutes ago, robblok said:

I agree 100% and I was flooded longer because of downtown BKK. Its just the way it is and logical. You can't flood the economical heart of the country. It would be so damaging. So just sacrifice the farmers is a far better option. However the compensation for doing so should be a lot higher. This will also increase the governments efforts to build better water management infrastructure. 

 

Because if its too cheap to flood the farmers why invest. 

 

The problem is not that it is cheaper to flood the farmers. The problem is that budgets set to improved infrastructure would be cut substantially into pockets and not to the infrastructure.

 

Just simple road building and maintenance is a testimony.

[soalbundy]

3 hours ago, SaintLouisBlues said:

There are more votes in Bangkok than the provinces

you mean more of the 'correct votes'

[soalbundy]

2 hours ago, fruitman said:

 

Yup but the Bangkokians are not so stupid to sell them for 500 baht. They must have brains in that city.

555555 no they vote for what is good for the country, not for self interest.

[Srikcir]

1 hour ago, halloween said:

Surely the concept of a 'flood plain' is not that hard to grasp, even for rice farmers. "Flood mitigation" by the dams might be a bit harder.

Also easier to grasp are crop management strategies to handle predictable seasonal flooding.

There are flood prone rice and deepwater rice that are suitable to areas susceptable to flooding. Granted such rice might not bring as high as price as jasmine rice but could help sustain a farmer's self-sufficieny.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepwater_rice

 

FloodProne Rice.pdf

[bark]

4 hours ago, MaxLee said:

 

It's been like that for years....

Farmers cut down all the trees which helped keep more water in the ground, instead it flowing down hills sides, into rivers.

[bark]

3 hours ago, SaintLouisBlues said:

There are more votes in Bangkok than the provinces

Wrong.

The farmers and their families are the reason why Mr. T was able to become PM.

[soalbundy]

4 minutes ago, Srikcir said:

Also easier to grasp are crop management strategies to handle predictable seasonal flooding.

There are flood prone rice and deepwater rice that are suitable to areas susceptable to flooding. Granted such rice might not bring as high as price as jasmine rice but could help sustain a farmer's self-sufficieny.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepwater_rice

 

FloodProne Rice.pdf

Certainly not as high as the 6 Baht a kilo that we will now be getting, you would be better off not planting if you knew before hand, my wife had a premonition and only planted for our own use, let the rest buy from Cambodia

[soalbundy]

3 minutes ago, bark said:

Farmers cut down all the trees which helped keep more water in the ground, instead it flowing down hills sides, into rivers.

Yes, you can grow rice among the trees,makes it easier when using the combine harvester.

[bark]

2 hours ago, kannot said:

i think the Thaksin era can prove u wrong

Correct.  Farmers and their families, aloud Mr T to be PM.

[bark]

1 minute ago, soalbundy said:

Yes, you can grow rice among the trees,makes it easier when using the combine harvester.

I guess you think that rice is the only crop that is grown by farmers ?

You must be very thin !

Move along please.

[soalbundy]

Just now, bark said:

I guess you think that rice is the only crop that is grown by farmers ?

You must be very thin !

Move along please.

not the only crop, but the biggest

[fruitman]

6 minutes ago, bark said:

Wrong.

The farmers and their families are the reason why Mr. T was able to become PM.

Yup for 500 baht they all voted for him.

 

When he offered them a double price for their rice they couldn't be happier. But when he (his sister) didn't pay it they didn't know what to do.

[Srikcir]

6 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

let the rest buy from Cambodia

I repeat ... "help sustain a farmer's self-sufficieny."

But I do recognize the strategy of doing nothing.

[soalbundy]

1 minute ago, Srikcir said:

I repeat ... "help sustain a farmer's self-sufficieny."

But I do recognize the strategy of doing nothing.

some land, especially in Isaan is only good for rice, but it doesn't seem to matter what you grow the price is always lousy, we have had people here change to rubber trees, look what happened to the rubber price. We keep pigs and frogs as well, pigs are a lot of work ( if done humanely) and expensive,let's see what happens to the price of pork. We sold 50 tons of Jasmin rice to the government over 3 years ago, still waiting for payment