Finally we have the vision to solve rice crisis, but do we have the courage?

[webfact]

Finally we have the vision to solve rice crisis, but do we have the courage? 
By Pyaporn Wongruan 
The Nation

 

BANGKOK: -- Rice is back in the spotlight again after prices plummeted as low as Bt5 per kilogram – less than a packet of instant noodles. 

 

Plunging rice prices are nothing new for Thailand, which has been plagued by the issue repeatedly over the years as our output of rice for export grew.

International markets are partly responsible, but focusing only on this end point means we have overlooked the root of the problems and thus the opportunity to fix them.

Since the latest rice crisis emerged a few weeks ago, civic and other sectors of society have stepped in to help absorb oversupply in the hope of shoring up falling prices. Social media has been abuzz with information about the situation, including tips on how ordinary citizens can help.

 

Full story: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/politics/30299696

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2016-11-11

[smedly]

Yingluc seems to be on top of things, after spending almost a trillion baht of tax payers money with some 600billion contributing to abuse and corruption she has now set up a rice stall in a shopping center for a photo shoot  

[ChrisY1]

Promoting Prayuth and his sidekicks as visionary, is a huge exaggeration and so far from reality.

[ikke]

Finally we have the vision to solve rice crisis

 

A vision ??? Who has a vision, please stop posting BS . They don't even have a clue , the only thing they do is on a daily base sprouting bs to the media and trying to be top populist ones more with lots of tax payers money.

[Bullie]

Now let me think how to remedy the situation....

 

Let's look at Vietnam. They control the water supply in an orderly fashion. They have mechanized. They work harder. They don't use as much pesticides. They produce a better quality of rice. They are adapting wonderfully to a changing climate.

 

But surely that can have nothing to do with it. Everybody knows East West, Thailand best! It must definitely be those damn farang who are ultimately to blame for all of this.

 

 

[Eric Loh]

He neither have the vision or the smart to solve the problem not to mention time. Too busy chasing and doing the wrong things. Everything is in a mess from agriculture, foreign direct investment, deep south insurgents, infrastructure projects delays, foreign relationship, stimulating the domestic consumption and the list goes on. The only thing he done well and invested all his time is to go after political enemies and the skewed charter.  

[selftaopath]

39 minutes ago, ikke said:

Finally we have the vision to solve rice crisis

 

A vision ??? Who has a vision, please stop posting BS . They don't even have a clue , the only thing they do is on a daily base sprouting bs to the media and trying to be top populist ones more with lots of tax payers money.

They sound like relatives to the US "Groper in Chief." 

[Ace of Pop]

Yingluc seems to be on top of things, after spending almost a trillion baht of tax payers money with some 600billion contributing to abuse and corruption she has now set up a rice stall in a shopping center for a photo shoot  

She had to open a Stall,She failed the exam to work in 7/11,lest we forget,but became P.M.[emoji233]


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[worgeordie]

Falling prices,  where,not in Makro,Supermarkets or wet markets,

profiteers are at work,

regards Worgeordie

[Srikcir]

1 hour ago, Bullie said:

Let's look at Vietnam.

In 2014 Vietnam export of rice earned farmers a profit that was 50% more than Thai rice farmers. Mayanmar rice farmers saw a profit that was 55% more than Thai rice farmers.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/745047-thai-farmers-poorest-in-asean/

Thai rice farmers' cost of production has been too high to compete profitably in the global market.

While the Prayut government has spent billions of baht to help rice farmers offset some of the production costs, it's not been enough to assure a liveable profit margin and largely focused on sale of quantities for the domestic rice market than for the global market.

[sungod]

Thailand is an upper middle income country, maybe rice is not the crop they should be growing, or at least in the manner its produced.

 

Just saw the post above as I was posting, couldn't agree more.

Edited November 11, 2016 by sungod

[ddavidovsky]

1 hour ago, Bullie said:

Now let me think how to remedy the situation....

 

Let's look at Vietnam. They control the water supply in an orderly fashion. They have mechanized. They work harder. They don't use as much pesticides. They produce a better quality of rice. They are adapting wonderfully to a changing climate.

 

But surely that can have nothing to do with it. Everybody knows East West, Thailand best! It must definitely be those damn farang who are ultimately to blame for all of this.

 

 

 

Not too convinced about your glowing appraisal of Vietnam. Some academic sources would help.

Vietnam also has one of the most restrictive presses in the world. When things go wrong we just don't hear about it.

 

Regarding pesticide use, a quick enquiry immediately revealed this papar: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.njas.2013.09.001.  Abstract as follows.

 

"Vietnam is facing serious challenges with respect to the amount and toxicity of the pesticides used. With hardly any domestic pesticides production, Vietnam experienced an exponential growth of both the quantity and the value of imported pesticides in recent years. And the increasing import of newly formulated (and safer) pesticides has not replaced or reduced the highly toxic pesticides with low efficacy. The improper use of pesticides by farmers (too high dosages, cocktailing of pesticides, inadequate pre-harvest intervals etc.) has further contributed to the environmental and health problems resulting from pesticides, especially in poorer areas where farmers have to largely rely on cheap but often old and more toxic pesticides. Despite a growth in pesticide policies and regulation, the state has been unable to regulate the pesticide market. The main causes behind the state failure in pesticide market regulation are the governance structure (i.e., centralized decision making), large corruption, information distortion and a failing legal system. To some extent, and in some more wealthy areas, famers and retailers have emerged successfully as new pesticide governance actors. But an overall improvement of pesticide registration and pesticide use can only rely on better government intervention: more stringent implementation and enforcement of regulations, more effective promotion of IPM-based pest control, further public participation in implementation and higher ethics within government."

 

 

[TPI]

Thailand one of two ways to go IMHO. In the first case they can follow the advice of the late King and concentrate on subsistence farming and so continue to be Phrai to  the local Amnat, stop going to school and live peaceful unimaginative lives! It's not as bad as it looks, it's a calm and fruitful way to live, no hassles and always having enough material things to be comfortable!

 

Of course the military would hate this as by not producing either goods or services they live as parasites on the body of Thailand.

 

The other course is to mechanise production at every level, combine the padi into the largest size practicable  and do everything in the most "efficient" way possible! This will break the people's connection to the land but, isn't that inevitable in the long run with this capitalist system?? The international philosophy nowadays is to either keep up or get out of the way!

[wayned]

When will they learn, you don't buy the rice after the farmers grow it, you pay the farmers not to grow it and grow other crops.  That way there is no excess amounts that have to be stored and somehow disposed of, the price remains stable and the farmers can supplement their income by the profits on other crops.   Of course that means additional cost to the farmers do to the need for different equipment to plant and harvest different crops and there has to be some policing system in place to see that the farmers adhere to their commitment.  Ah there is the operative  word Policing!  Oh well!!

[Kasset Tak]

The problem lies within the farmers:

I'm a rice farmer so I can not grow anything but rice

I have a pig farm so I don't grow any crops and instead buy all the feed.

 

Integrated farming, crop rotation and using manure as fertilizer are just some small easy things a farmer can do but I can just not see it happen in a near future.

OVEC has put "Thailand 4.0" on the table for the vocational colleges where education should focus on subjects/things that will improve that thinking and so on but so far there has been no extra money for the colleges to implement it. For example we want to make a small integrated pig, cattle, chicken and fish farm to use for project based learning where the student will do everything from growing the crops, preparing the feeds and all the way to slaughter and sales of the products... We got an OK but after 1.5 years we are still waiting on the money!

[Brer Fox]

2 hours ago, Bullie said:

Now let me think how to remedy the situation....

 

Let's look at Vietnam. They control the water supply in an orderly fashion. They have mechanized. They work harder. They don't use as much pesticides. They produce a better quality of rice. They are adapting wonderfully to a changing climate.

 

But surely that can have nothing to do with it. Everybody knows East West, Thailand best! It must definitely be those damn farang who are ultimately to blame for all of this.

 

 

According to the author of this story it is the evil international markets that are part to blame. How that conclusion can be reached is hard to imagine. But he is right about the freeloaders. These grifters need to be driven out of the industry.

I totally agree with what you say about the way Vietnam does things. I share my time between Thailand and Vietnam and I can visually compare how they do things in both countries. Thailand rice production is still in the dark ages compared to Vietnam. Thailand needs to get out and about and find out how it is done properly. Too much ivory tower sitting and pontificating by the Generals methinks!

[wayned]

18 minutes ago, Kasset Tak said:

The problem lies within the farmers:

I'm a rice farmer so I can not grow anything but rice

I have a pig farm so I don't grow any crops and instead buy all the feed.

 

Integrated farming, crop rotation and using manure as fertilizer are just some small easy things a farmer can do but I can just not see it happen in a near future.

OVEC has put "Thailand 4.0" on the table for the vocational colleges where education should focus on subjects/things that will improve that thinking and so on but so far there has been no extra money for the colleges to implement it. For example we want to make a small integrated pig, cattle, chicken and fish farm to use for project based learning where the student will do everything from growing the crops, preparing the feeds and all the way to slaughter and sales of the products... We got an OK but after 1.5 years we are still waiting on the money!

I disagree with you, the farmers can and will grow other crops when forced to.  I live in Nakhon Sawan Province in farm country.  The major crops that we grow are corn and sugar cane, I grow both.  We have a small Coop and I bought and imported three used John Deere Combines from the US.  We harvest, store and dry our own crops of corn but also truck these combines to Uthai Thanni and Chinat Provinces to harvest corn.  This corn there is being grown on reclaimed rice paddies.  A couple of years ago the government cut off water access to irrigate the land so the farmers had a choice, either let the land go or plant another crop, which they did.  One of the problems is that preparation and planting of corn requires different tools than rice.  Most, if not all of the farmers,  have reached their credit limits with the BAAC so there's no available money.  If the government paid the farmers not to grow the rice up front, there would be some money available and they could grow other crops like the ones in these Provinces that were forced to by the lack of water.  Policing would still be an issue but it would keep the price up without having to buy, store and somehow/sometime dispose of the extra rice!

 

I'm American and we have been doing it this way for as long as I can remember!

[elgordo38]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

society have stepped in to help absorb oversupply in the hope of shoring up falling prices.

Seems like more fingers are required for the dike. 

[adhd]

make every farang that wants an extention to buy 100 kg of rice at 19 baht per kilogram

 

hehe, same price as the extention

 

 

why can japanese make WINE (sake) out of rice but not thai people?  time for a new export product

 

Edited November 11, 2016 by adhd

[elgordo38]

2 minutes ago, adhd said:

make every farang that wants an extention to buy 100 kg of rice at 19 baht per kilogram

 

hehe, same price as the extention

 

 

why can japanese make WINE (sake) out of rice but not thai people?  time for a new export product

 

Great idea. Now somehow make the PM think it was his idea and its a go. 

[chilli42]

Keep on supporting rice farmers and they will keep on planting rice.  Thailand is not competitive in terms of bringing rice to market.  It's time to bite the bullet and move on to other crops.

[selftaopath]

5 hours ago, ikke said:

Finally we have the vision to solve rice crisis

 

A vision ??? Who has a vision, please stop posting BS . They don't even have a clue , the only thing they do is on a daily base sprouting bs to the media and trying to be top populist ones more with lots of tax payers money.

They sound like relatives to the US "Groper in Chief." 

[elgordo38]

35 minutes ago, chilli42 said:

Keep on supporting rice farmers and they will keep on planting rice.  Thailand is not competitive in terms of bringing rice to market.  It's time to bite the bullet and move on to other crops.

Rice farmers here need direction not hand outs. 

[elgordo38]

43 minutes ago, chilli42 said:

Keep on supporting rice farmers and they will keep on planting rice.  Thailand is not competitive in terms of bringing rice to market.  It's time to bite the bullet and move on to other crops.

Its getting so desperate that some farmers are biting the bullet. 

[elgordo38]

12 minutes ago, selftaopath said:

They sound like relatives to the US "Groper in Chief." 

All his hot air and rhetoric got him elected. Its something similar to the elixir (snake) oil salesman of the wild wild west. After the high pressure sales pitch you tone it down and pass among the suckers to collect 2 bits for a bottle of water and sugar. 

[Bullie]

4 hours ago, Brer Fox said:

According to the author of this story it is the evil international markets that are part to blame. How that conclusion can be reached is hard to imagine. But he is right about the freeloaders. These grifters need to be driven out of the industry.

I totally agree with what you say about the way Vietnam does things. I share my time between Thailand and Vietnam and I can visually compare how they do things in both countries. Thailand rice production is still in the dark ages compared to Vietnam. Thailand needs to get out and about and find out how it is done properly. Too much ivory tower sitting and pontificating by the Generals methinks!

Dear Brer Fox: Ever heard of sarcasm? I never, ever blamed the international markets. The one thing I do blame though, is the ineptness of both the thai government and the rice growers in thailand who just keep on doing the same old thing over and over again - while the world is moving forward, meanwhile.

No wondr they are lagging behind!

[xtrnuno41]

5 bath/kg = 013 euro. However im paying 1.79 euro/kg. So where is the money? Right in big pockets.

But sure not the ricefarmer.

Government could also do something about the many Thai, who cant even buy rice and feed them.

Rice can be used to make alcohol, but guess sugarcane is more profitable.

Or big companies try to get down Thailand as big exporter and farmers are going down, as the

'line after the farmer dont want to go down. Farmers first.

Wouldnt be surprised that big buyers want to crash Thailand. It is even more normal these days

to crush and have the money with the rich and not with the poor.

Same with cacao, the farmers are squashed, cant live normally, though there is a shortage in cacao and rising !

Farmers stop as they cant have normal live with selling their crops.

Prices of chocolate are already going up. But it is like that, big companies get the money, until its gone.

Same problem with bananas and i guess many and many more natural products (food !)

Nowadays we have a really lovely good system, all for the rich and everone else is collateral damage

[williamgeorgeallen]

[williamgeorgeallen]

7 hours ago, Eric Loh said:

He neither have the vision or the smart to solve the problem not to mention time. Too busy chasing and doing the wrong things. Everything is in a mess from agriculture, foreign direct investment, deep south insurgents, infrastructure projects delays, foreign relationship, stimulating the domestic consumption and the list goes on. The only thing he done well and invested all his time is to go after political enemies and the skewed charter.  

ah, remember the good old days? when people used to post in a positive fashion about the current 'government' will be easier for trump, many have low expectations from him.

[Brer Fox]

7 hours ago, Bullie said:

Now let me think how to remedy the situation....

 

Let's look at Vietnam. They control the water supply in an orderly fashion. They have mechanized. They work harder. They don't use as much pesticides. They produce a better quality of rice. They are adapting wonderfully to a changing climate.

 

But surely that can have nothing to do with it. Everybody knows East West, Thailand best! It must definitely be those damn farang who are ultimately to blame for all of this.

 

 

 

Dear Brer Fox: Ever heard of sarcasm? I never, ever blamed the international markets. The one thing I do blame though, is the ineptness of both the thai government and the rice growers in thailand who just keep on doing the same old thing over and over again - while the world is moving forward, meanwhile.

No wondr they are lagging behind!

 

Dear Bullie, Don't get excited. I wasn't blaming you for anything. If you re-read my comments you will see I was referring to the author of the story whose name happens to be  Pyaporn Wongruan. Unless you really are  Pyaporn Wongruan  and Bullie is your alias.

And I totally agree with your other comments.