Thai govt scrambles to address rice price slumps by urging farmers to grow green manure crops

[Brer Fox]

6 hours ago, Denim said:

Green manure ? Could pass as a description of the current government.

Flattery will get you nowhere.

[GinBoy2]

9 hours ago, Moonmoon said:

Sorry i have to disagree with u. 

 

Not true. there r many successful and rich Thais that I know of. There are examples of many successful young entrepreneurs. 

 

The speed of them catching on and leading new business trends is amazing. 

 

The rice farmer problem does not dictate what the whole of Thai people are. 

I actually agree with both of you to some degree.

 

Of course there are educated Thai's would become successful, but often they tend to come from already fairly wealthy urban families, capable of affording an overseas education.

On the other hand there is a rural population who are relegated to education designed to propagate a 'serfdom' mentality in perpetuity.

 

We go round and around on the topic of farming sustainability, and as I any others have noted, average farm size is so small, you will never end the cycle of poverty, without land consolidation, regardless of what or how you grow it.

 

South Korea & Taiwan both had similar predicaments back in the 60's & 70's. Their solutions were to provide high quality education for ALL, and the jobs for those newly well educated folks, which in turn gets them off the land resulting in consolidation of land, and hence a profitable farming sector, and a very vibrant hi tech sector.

 

That solution however rather requires vision, and the ruling elites, over decades seem quite comfortable with the idea of having a very small well educated elite, and a very large poorly educated peasant class

Edited November 18, 2016 by GinBoy2

[kannot]

9 hours ago, Moonmoon said:

Sorry i have to disagree with u. 

 

Not true. there r many successful and rich Thais that I know of. There are examples of many successful young entrepreneurs. 

 

The speed of them catching on and leading new business trends is amazing. 

 

The rice farmer problem does not dictate what the whole of Thai people are. 

im  sure  the  unsuccessful outweigh the  successful

[kannot]

9 hours ago, kickstart said:

These are good  crops for  a green manure ,but the seeds are not available in Thailand .

The government says grow a green manure crop in the summer , theses  crops will not grow here then  to hot ,Alfalfa ,might  being a deep rooted grass might do something , rye would not get out the ground , mung beans ,and sun hemp suite Thailand better

As has been said  any green  manure  grown in the summer  will need watering , from February onwards  regularly on Thai  TV, you see  water trucks taking water to villages ,where they water supply has dried up ,if a village has no water ,how are farmers expected to grow crops ,and what small reservoirs/ dams they are will have dry up be then ,if they is water the cost of  pumping it  will out weight any  gains from the green manure .

Over in the Farming form ,Maize and rotational crops  Farmerjo  has done it with sunn hemp ,it dose work here in LOS .

Also  rice fields are designed to keep water in ,to grow maize fields will need to be drained you can not grow maize in wet fields ,it will just rot , and not cheap to convert over .

Yet another brainless idea  from  some desk  whaler  in the big city .

I mentioned the crap nationwide water  supply many times.....the basics water and electric which are reliable and year round before you do anything else....otherwise waste of  time, see many things planted here then left to die in Prachuap one of the driest parts of Thailand....stupidity

[Moonmoon]

11 hours ago, kannot said:

im  sure  the  unsuccessful outweigh the  successful

of cos as it is the almost same anywhere else. 

unless we want to go into detail how many are in poverty, middle class and the rich.

 

There are many shopping malls. Tesco Lotus, Restaurants and night bazaars that are in business.

If all Thais r very very poor then who is sustaining all these businesses?  Foreigners?

Every time I go into a shopping mall I see many Thais eating, shopping and I don't think the prices are cheap

like your 30 baht Fried Egg Omelette with rice.  

 

I myself have a business in beauty and cosmetic products and I have a few shops around. I can say I am doing fairly well being that I own a condo and a house( well in my wife's name lol) and a car.

My customers are all Thais. ( I only had 2 retail farang customers b4 )

I distribute to the provinces as well and customers from Issan and Laos are really rich and contrary to popular belief, their buying power is much better than Bangkokians. 

Products that are expensive like 1000 - 2000 baht range are selling well if the product is really good. Thais are willing to spend if the quality is good.

I don't deny the fact that economy has slow down since the Yingluck era. 

Well just for me the rice problem does not reflect the success of the Thai people whether they are from the rural or urban area.

I have seen many cases of Thai millionaires making it big from nothing at all especially since the internet boom in Thailand in recent years..

I don't count the rich kids as success cases.

And of cos poverty is still rampant in Thailand definitely.

Edited November 19, 2016 by Moonmoon

[Wanderer555]

On 11/17/2016 at 8:12 AM, alant said:

whats a green manure crop?

Green manure is the term used to describe crops such as Sun Hemp, that are grown for the express purpose of tilling them back into the soil to add nitrogen (it is a fertilizer) from plants that absorb a lot of nitrogen when they are growing, and to increase the amount of organic matter in the soil. The organic matter helps to in making the soil loose, increases the number or beneficial microbes in the soil and more. Many soils in Thailand are heavy, with lots of clay, do not drain well and after years of growing the same crops (rice) the soils are depleted.

 

Chemical fertilizers/pesticides create kill off many the beneficial microbes, so adding green manure is a great way of improving the soil. The problem here is that in the dry season many need irrigation water and it is not available to many farmers.

 

Cheers!