New law will restrict traditional ways: Thai farmers

[473geo]

5 minutes ago, thaiguzzi said:

Maybe as a wind barrier on borders and ditches, ok.

But actually sticking it into a field of say 10-15 rai, no.

It's lazy farming, which brings money in 3 years after planting, and every few years there after.

Anything is better, but requires more work, inc rice, cassava or sugar.

And it is bad for the soil in that 10-15 rai.

You will see nothing grows in it after a while, the trees leech every bit of goodness out of the soil, and it takes years to grow anything half decent after the Eucalyptus is gone.

Horrible stuff.

Read up on the history of Eucalyptus being introduced to this country.

Japanese & Paper conglomerates.

Also ask yourself the question, why nobody puts it in decent, good land?

 

As I said they are smart around my area indeed nobody puts it on good land. Secondly it provides revenue every couple of years. A while ago now I was out cycling and asked some people stripping some out how much it paid - 11 baht per kg

[spidermike007]

Do I detect the presence of Monsanto here? Is this about greed on the part of the officials? Influence peddling? Something about this does not pass the smell test. 

[Kasset Tak]

 

4 hours ago, chainarong said:

The rice farmers may have a case I'm not a rice farmer, what I do know, farmers can't handle change and to prove that how many young people are working paddy fields , my experience with my family,  the young in the village go to agriculture schools learn new ways, go back to farm, Grandad, Father and uncles kindly ignore their suggestions, after a year of trying , the youngsters head to the city, you only have to see the thousand year old tradition of burning off, to understand lack of progress.

 

1 hour ago, robblok said:

Not all farmers, Dutch farmers are some of the most inovative farmers there are. The changes I have witnessed there were amazing. But there was good education for farmers where I came from. But I agree in Thailand they don't seem to want to change or learn new things. The few young farmers that did change and made it are inspirational, i seen Thai stories about that. But most farmers don't want to change.

I work in an agricultural college here in Thailand and frankly one of the the worst thing for my students are their parents and families!

* Most of my students stay in the dormitory during weekdays and goes home on the weekends. In the beginning of this week (travel and preparation last weekend) there were national skills competition for agricultural students and sadly several students could not go... their parents didn't allow them to go during last weekend because they stay in the dormitory during the weekdays.
* One student had a 1 year payed internship in Denmark, and each month he sent sent back as much money he could to his parents each month to help them to take care and develop their farm. When he got back home his father bought a brand new pickup truck using the money my student had sent back to pay every month... but as he came back home and went to finish his studies, there were no more money coming in... so basically my student worked for a year and thanks to his dad, all he got from it was a pair of shoes and some clothes and.
* It happens that my students get calls (they are allowed to use their phones) during lessons, it's mostly from their parents asking about anything (many times it seems like they just ask if they have eaten yet or what they want for dinner...). One day I took the phone of one students and told her mother that she should either call before 08:00, 12:00-13:00 or after 17:00 (she could call 6-10 times during a 2 hour lesson). She went to the director and complained that I should not tell her not to call her daughter... in the end she took her daughter out of school?!
And the list goes on and on with things like this...

[bluesofa]

6 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Do I detect the presence of Monsanto here? Is this about greed on the part of the officials? Influence peddling? Something about this does not pass the smell test. 

It's a distinct possibility reading below, it could be the thin end of the wedge. Being cynical that's when we suddenly find everyone has to buy gmo rice:

 

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Two major controversial points of the Rice Bill, proposed by 25 NLA members, are the ban on uncertified paddy seeds and the requirement that rice mills issue paddy-purchase papers clearly specifying rice varieties, weight, quality and moisture content. 

 

[longtom]

Simple question:
Will this improve the yield per rai of padddy grown?
Please explain to me whoever knows the answer. Thank you

Sent from my SM-J250F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[boonrawdcnx]

“Farmers are worried that the bill will force them to buy commercial varieties.....”
The first thing that came to my mind when I started reading this article was - Who is going to make money on the back of the farmers again by introducing this bill?

It couldn’t be one of the big conglomerates again couldn’t it?



Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[thaiguzzi]

2 hours ago, 473geo said:

As I said they are smart around my area indeed nobody puts it on good land. Secondly it provides revenue every couple of years. A while ago now I was out cycling and asked some people stripping some out how much it paid - 11 baht per kg

 

Whatever.

You are a Eucalyptus Fanboy, i am not.

Sugar, cassava, & rice bring in revenue annually.

They also don't destroy the land.

Revenue for eucalyptus has varied from as little as 700 Baht per metric tonne, to as much as 1300 Baht per metric tonne over the years.

Either way, the stuff should be banned.

[Blue Muton]

There ought to be a properly policed ban on the traditional burning off practice, with payment witheld for those who insist on burning or who have "unfortunate" fires break out on their land.

[rickudon]

Certified rice varieties ..... most 'new' varieties WILL produce larger yields than older varieties. They also often require more water, fertiliser and more pesticides to achieve this. So the farmer buys the better, more expensive seed to get the bigger harvest, but he also spends more on chemicals. If he gets it right, he will probably make more money. If he doesn't, he makes less. The seed and chemical companies never make less .......

 

Or he can use his traditional home saved seed, plough a bit and throw in some manure. He gets less rice but his input costs are a lot lower. And no pesticide residues with luck.

[spidermike007]

5 hours ago, Kasset Tak said:

 

 

I work in an agricultural college here in Thailand and frankly one of the the worst thing for my students are their parents and families!

* Most of my students stay in the dormitory during weekdays and goes home on the weekends. In the beginning of this week (travel and preparation last weekend) there were national skills competition for agricultural students and sadly several students could not go... their parents didn't allow them to go during last weekend because they stay in the dormitory during the weekdays.
* One student had a 1 year payed internship in Denmark, and each month he sent sent back as much money he could to his parents each month to help them to take care and develop their farm. When he got back home his father bought a brand new pickup truck using the money my student had sent back to pay every month... but as he came back home and went to finish his studies, there were no more money coming in... so basically my student worked for a year and thanks to his dad, all he got from it was a pair of shoes and some clothes and.
* It happens that my students get calls (they are allowed to use their phones) during lessons, it's mostly from their parents asking about anything (many times it seems like they just ask if they have eaten yet or what they want for dinner...). One day I took the phone of one students and told her mother that she should either call before 08:00, 12:00-13:00 or after 17:00 (she could call 6-10 times during a 2 hour lesson). She went to the director and complained that I should not tell her not to call her daughter... in the end she took her daughter out of school?!
And the list goes on and on with things like this...

A petty, ridiculous Coward, who cannot use her mind for reasonable thought, due to infantile pride and a complete lack of emotional development. I pity these kids. 

[dinsdale]

[TPI]

On 2/15/2019 at 9:48 AM, chainarong said:

The rice farmers may have a case I'm not a rice farmer, what I do know, farmers can't handle change and to prove that how many young people are working paddy fields , my experience with my family,  the young in the village go to agriculture schools learn new ways, go back to farm, Grandad, Father and uncles kindly ignore their suggestions, after a year of trying , the youngsters head to the city, you only have to see the thousand year old tradition of burning off, to understand lack of progress.

While traditional farmers, like most communities in Thailand, hate and to the best of their ability, ignore change, the government should not push the farmers into having to deal with multinational producers of GM seeds! Obviously there is more to this story that meets the eye, the Ministry may have an ulterior motive (perish the thought!) and forcing farmers to accept non native seed stock could be their ruination?  

[TPI]

22 hours ago, Blue Muton said:

There ought to be a properly policed ban on the traditional burning off practice, with payment witheld for those who insist on burning or who have "unfortunate" fires break out on their land.

Coming from a "sugar cane" background I understand why the fields are burnt. They burn to remove the trash (weeds, thorns, snakes etc) from the fields before they cut, it makes it possible to cut the cane by hand, necessary with smallish plots and less useless vegetation on the trucks going to the mill! I agree, "green" cutting is excellent for returning nutriments to the ground but if it took years in countries like Australia imagine how long it will take here??  ????

[Blue Muton]

10 minutes ago, TPI said:

Coming from a "sugar cane" background I understand why the fields are burnt. They burn to remove the trash (weeds, thorns, snakes etc) from the fields before they cut, it makes it possible to cut the cane by hand, necessary with smallish plots and less useless vegetation on the trucks going to the mill! I agree, "green" cutting is excellent for returning nutriments to the ground but if it took years in countries like Australia imagine how long it will take here??  ????

Agreed, but the longer it takes to start out, the longer it will take to get there.

[ratcatcher]

On 2/15/2019 at 10:21 AM, crazygreg44 said:

very well like the family of my girlfriend. They do not sell their rice harvest. They eat it by themselves and use it to trade for other goods within their village, they have done so for decades and they don't need to buy Monsanto seeds !! 

Subsistence farmers.

Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow food crops to feed themselves and their families. In subsistence agriculture, farm output is targeted to survival and is mostly for local requirements with little or no surplus trade.

[fisherd3]

Thai Rice mill businesses are the Thai loan sharks of the farming industry and are probably the same people.