My Three Weeks Of Feeling Up Korat Soil And Asking

[bina]

well my three weeks in the muubaan kept me very busy besides getting married; i must be practically the only farang female that spent time running fingers thru soil, checking out water, and looking at cows -- and stealing three posters of a beautiful stud long eared bull advert'd in soeng sang, from the supermarket. one poster is in office, one on fridge and one went to a friend. noticed herds of cows with long eared ones interspersed, and noticed they are larger and taller. drove out to see goats. checked the lay of the lands the family own/morgtage/use/rent. looked at local river water source. counted fruit trees. saw bad farang style house-- expensive looking on outside but not well built when up close--, and decent wooden shack houses. didnt notice any kind of real animal husbandry or veggetable gardening for personal use except for here or there. saw crappy fish farm. saw a rather nice mushroom farm, they claimed it was lucrative. owner also had tons of money from his working days in israel to set up the 'shroom farm. saw one greenhouse/nursery growing and selling orchids etc... including those that had been stolen from nearby nat'l park.

anyway; LAND/SOIL

anon's family grow cassava, the white stemmed kind. so, what is this kind, as opposed to the reddish stemmed kind.

the soil is all reddish, and sandy like. they grow cassava every year. does this not depleat soil//

in general, what kind of soil is korat soil soeng sang area -- what else can be grown without access to water or drip irrigation

the entire area seems to be 'company cash crop' oriented-- all the crops go to the cassava factory on way to meung korat. i cant change ma and pa or pi/nong, but i can heavily influence husband in agricutural directions as long as i have access to info in thai... i think that any dirt poor farmer, if armed with knowlege, can improve his lot and not remain in the regualr 'bannork' rut... even with minimal monetary investment. links, ideas etc. just researching here, and thinking things out.

they dont have tractors, plowers, or anything else. they sold off their cows. anon' s father is the last of the old timer animal poachers. most of the family is not interested in farming in more than the usual lackadaisical manner. anon wants to be a farmer, eventually, if/when we have to move to thailand, and wants to learn more.

what agric. courses are there in korat for grade school only adults.

trying to vacuum up as much info as possible.... but need stuff in thai too...

links ideas etc... or sources resources in thai would be very nice....

bina and anon

israel

am trying to get some simple info about drip irrigation systems, but ex husband not cooperating -- he's the ex farmer-- winter wheat, forage corn, etc.

[Issangeorge]

Bina, in my area of Issan, 3 corners of Kalasin, Roi-et, Mukdahan, they grow sugar cane in the same areas as cassava and these areas have no irrigation. They also seem to grow watermellon. Issangeorge.

[bina]

hi issangeorge,

yep, sugarcane, which also depletes soil and is another of those company owned type cash crops.

i noticed the watermelons also in korat, but mostly saw just the cash crop types of stuff which means that if a crop fails with one person, then the whole area's fields will fail, which means the whole area loses out.... actually i need more info about the courses, and these specific types of cassava....

bina and anon

[chownah]

Could it be sweet cassava? See the link:

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/tropica..._26/lec_26.html

Chownah

[RamdomChances]

inks ideas etc... or sources resources in thai would be very nice....

Try this link for aron , all downloadable e-books in thai

http://www.dld.go.th/nutrition/Nutrition_K...information.htm

Have a look through our "links and resorces" section loads of good stuff there

[billd766]

Could it be sweet cassava? See the link:

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/tropica..._26/lec_26.html

Chownah

Thanks for that link Chownah.

My wife has about 15 rai planted with it. She has some left over from last year just waiting for the price tto rise. It is about 1100 baht a ton here in Central at the moment.

[bina]

thanx ramdom,

we have opened and printed about one a day recently; it gives him something to read when he's not working and in his hole in the wall basement room on the moshav, instead of going to sleep at 17 00 every day...

but we noticed nothing on fish farming so still perusing the net for that one....

the links are good; i think many of us need thai language info for our partners and i personally cannot search for the sites and anon is still not skilled enough to find the right combo of search words so all help is need.

bina and anon

[lannarebirth]

thanx ramdom,

we have opened and printed about one a day recently; it gives him something to read when he's not working and in his hole in the wall basement room on the moshav, instead of going to sleep at 17 00 every day...

but we noticed nothing on fish farming so still perusing the net for that one....

the links are good; i think many of us need thai language info for our partners and i personally cannot search for the sites and anon is still not skilled enough to find the right combo of search words so all help is need.

bina and anon

Bina,

Check out the activities at the villages 1-8 on this page:

http://www.cri.or.th/cri/activities/act_sp3.htm

It looks like they may be learning the things you and Anon wish to know, in community environment which may feel familiar to you. I see they have a program to send Thai kids to Israeli kibuttz. Maybe you could get the Israeli govt to fund a trip for you two here, to teach locals what you know?

Ken

Edited December 2, 2006 by lannarebirth

[bina]

geez, never knew this existed or how to find a site like that, but, cant find it in thai, and to convince anon about a project like this i need it in thai... so am writing to them to see if the program still is in existance also...

he, needless to say, was skeptical as to 'programs' that involve village thai and anything involving 'learning'...

but thank you very much, any other ideas/etc forthcoming, we are willing to listen and try....how on earth did u find that site ...

bina

[lannarebirth]

geez, never knew this existed or how to find a site like that, but, cant find it in thai, and to convince anon about a project like this i need it in thai... so am writing to them to see if the program still is in existance also...

he, needless to say, was skeptical as to 'programs' that involve village thai and anything involving 'learning'...

but thank you very much, any other ideas/etc forthcoming, we are willing to listen and try....how on earth did u find that site ...

bina

bina,

Maybe something here:

http://www.enaca.org/modules/smartpartner/partner.php?id=11

Link is in Thai and maybe Anon could write for information:

http://www.fisheries.go.th/freshwater/index1.asp

Ken

[bina]

bookmarked it for him..... great, dont know how we didnt find the site...some rain coming our way soon therefore no work, so he will have homework to do...

bina and anon

[johnh101]

Bina,

There was a thread on here quite recently about setting up a Fish farm.

[bina]

saw it but its in english which means i have to figure out how to say it all in thai... just being a bit lazy, but did read thru it... also lot s of figures numbers etc which always throw me off in translation....