Udon Thani farmers urged not to burn rice straw

[nonghan]

Most administration departments in Udon are behind the times and out of touch with the people of the Province. There is very little local burning if rice stubble these days. Hand ploughs have been history for the past 15-20 years and ploughing with a Kwai Lek is almost history. Ploughing with a Tractor is much cheaper, 250 baht/rai, compared with the methods. Many rice farmers have learned through generations that burning the rice stubble reduces the incidence of disease in the new crop. It might be a good idea if the experts in Udon Agricultural Department, rather than the Land Office, arranged Tambon level meetings with the farmers to explain the pros and cons of not burning the rice stubble and convince them that any resultant increase in diseases will shoulder them with the need to spray costly chemicals on their crop and threaten their health. The real burning problem for Udon, and in fact the whole of the North and Northeast, i.e. 50% of the country, is not rice stubble. The burning of sugar cane fields turns the sun white across the width of Thailand at harvest time. the areas involved are huge. Maize stover is another contestant for top burner prizes. The Provincial agricultural department need to get themselves out into the Tambons and villages if they want to see results. They will have a great task on their hands because many farmers still remember 20 years ago when the Government and European Union advised them to stop growing cassava and plant para rubber instead.

Mike Lewis

[bannork]

Have to disagree with you about the burning of rice stubble in the Ban Dung area, it's still very common, as is the use of hand ploughs. Tractors are popular  but kwai lek is still widespread.

 

[PeeJay1959]

And tractors still produce emissions

[Bill Miller]

I wonder if, with government subsidy, co-ops of farmers could afford to maintain tractors for this and other purposes?
Also thinking of some of the (few remaining) small independent farmers in the US who reverted to horse drawn farming and found it increased profitability. I believe that is aided by niche "organic" labelling, though. Maybe not practicable on a national scale. Still, perhaps worth looking at. It would be cool to see the humble kwai returned to economic importance.
I have been spoiled by always having tractors available in my agricultural forays. Some of the small diesel jobs built in Asia are cheap, robust, and easily maintained.
Just throwing a couple of ideas out there. 

[jak2002003]

18 hours ago, bannork said:

I suspect they don't use the buffalo like in the past because it takes time to train a buffalo to plough, plus it ploughs far far slower than a tractor.

The tractor used by most farmers with handle bars can also be used to pump water, it just needs a belt attached to the pump, plus you can put rubber tyres on it and attach a trailer, then it can move at a fair speed, 10 or 15 miles per hour, far faster than an oxen with a cart.

If you have a buffalo where are you going to feed it in the rainy season? Everywhere has rice fields or sugar cane or rubber plantations. You will have to take it to some public land and move it every few hours or keep it in a shed and find grass to feed it.

True it provides free fertilizer and generally it's a gentle animal, far less temperamental than a cow but you need many rai that you can fence in to make it worthwhile looking after them. And if you don't live near their shed someone could easily liberate them during the night.

You make some good points.

 

Tractors are quicker... but what's the rush?  It's not like the farmers are running about doing 3 things at once in a busy kind of stressful  job.  Looking out my window each day,  the farmers are mostly laying out sleeping in the bamboo shelter things listening to their radios,, eating, drinking whisky and playing with little fires.  Other times they are aimlessly wandering about chatting and perhaps picking up a few leaves or catching a frog.  They have plenty of time on their hands most of the year. 

 

Only busy times are planting and harvest... and even then they seem to pay out money to get some Burmese immigrants to do the hard work.

 

As for feeding the buffalo when the rice is planted... easy... stock pile a load of bales of the old race straw... and also move the buffalo out to feed under trees in orchards or on the sides of the road.  Most people would only need 1 or 2 buffalo.. so not taking about feeding a great herd of them.

 

Now the farmers have to pay for tractors, harvesting machines and staff, people to plant the rice, fertilizers, pesticides, and food form the supermarket. 

 

In the past they had ducks to control the pests in the rice field, which provided free  eggs and meat.  They had buffalo for the ploughing, meat and also to eat grass.  Because the rice fields had no chemicals pumped into them they were full of life... turtles, frogs, wild ducks and geese, fish, eels, etc.. which would all be free food. The rice plants were tough and adapted to local conditions and pests.

 

Now the strains of rice are mostly weaker, not hardy  to pests or local environmental conditions.  There is no free organic fertilizer and pest control or meat from ducks and wildlife, farmers have to buy or rent expensive machinery which needs fuel and fixing, strimmers and tractors replaced cows and buffalo.  They also have to buy in chemical fertilizer and pesticides.... as they are banned form using traditional pesticides made from natural ingredients like ginger. 

 

Trapped in a vicious circle. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jerome2]

On Tuesday, December 20, 2016 at 5:48 PM, DekDaeng said:

Or, wait for it to rain.

Cannot ,it takes too much space for too long and is a hazard of fire. Hinder tractors and attract rats and snakes