Agriculture minister to tackle drought and falling prices

[snoop1130]

Agriculture minister to tackle drought and falling prices

By THE NATION

 

From left: Mananya, Chalermchai, Praphat, and Thammanat

 

The new Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Chalermchai Sri-on has wasted no time in identifying his highest priorities.

 

On July 18, his first day in office, Chalermchai and his 3 deputies - Thammanat Phromphao, Mananya Thaiseth and Praphat Phothasuthon – announced they would be focusing on the drought and plummeting crop prices, especially rice and rubber.

 

“Drought is the most pressing issue as the whole country is suffering from lower rainfall,” he said. “We are formulating plans to tackle both drought and flood problems, mainly by providing compensation and suggesting weather-suitable crops as a substitute for the usual main crops. 

 

“Although MOAC is not announcing any disaster zones at the moment, we are already surveying the damage caused by drought in several areas so that affected farmers can be suitably compensated without delay.”

 

According to the Royal Irrigation Department, this year’s rainfall is 18 per cent lower than normal, resulting in only 70 per cent of irrigated areas being viable for agriculture, mainly in the area below the Chao Phraya dam.

 

Praphat added that apart from the nationwide drought, rice farmers were also suffering from high production costs, now at Bt5,000 per ton. 

 

The MOAC will devise suitable measures, he said, be it compensation or a program of price guarantees, after discussing the matter with related parties to ensure that it does not affect consumers and entrepreneurs.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/business/30373214

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand  2019-07-18

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[khwaibah]

Seeing is believing.????

[soalbundy]

This is going to be good I can tell ????

[Cadbury]

The man is a magician. First day in office and it is pouring with rain, albeit down south.

Chalermchai is from the old Democrats Abhisit team who has grovelled his way into the Prayut team only because he promised to vote for Prayut to become PM. 

The man is a trough feeding loser and the country loses as a consequence.

[FarFlungFalang]

This is going to be a trickle down effect filling pockets with cash down the line and by time it reaches the farmers it will be a major monetary drought so more help will be needed and more trickle down policy.

[Chang_paarp]

1 hour ago, snoop1130 said:

“Drought is the most pressing issue as the whole country is suffering from lower rainfall,” he said. “We are formulating plans to tackle both drought and flood problems, mainly by providing compensation and suggesting weather-suitable crops as a substitute for the usual main crops. 

Got a special line to someone to get to weather to change?

[Isaanbiker]

         How will this end? 500 baht for farmers?

         Lieland, Dieland.TIT. No Land of Smiling Farmers

 

                  & No Country for Old Men. ????

[Reigntax]

"He is tackling both drought and flood problems"

 

Probably by doing ?......more talking or just nothing at all.

[notrub]

Further to earlier questions about farming and seeding etc. we are having a rethink in our family.  We would like to grow a crop that will not require so much water and not much fertiliser either.  There seems to be an abundance of dry chicken poop around here (sold by the bag) and wonder if this would work OK.

 

Our plan is to concentrate our efforts on a few rai for rice and figure out some other kind of crop for the rest.  Any ideas?  Would eucalyptus be feasible?  Ma will have a veg garden and a hosepipe to provide all the water she will need to provide for family use size crop.

[KKr]

15 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

We are formulating plans to tackle both drought and flood problems, mainly by providing compensation and suggesting weather-suitable crops as a substitute for the usual main crops

What about export revenues of rice? Compensation has already failed, at least it was unsustainably expensive, not too long ago.

No water management issues then it seems. Last year too much rain and this year a shortage of water. Seems not to add up.

Glad plans are underway after a long impasse. I like the plan immediately attitude. .

[Isaan sailor]

Good news—plenty of high quality, low cost rice from Vietnam available.  You see rice is traded in USD.  With a ridiculously high baht vs USD—Vietnamese, Chinese and even Indian rice will cost less.  Thailand going bust—and BoT doesn’t care. 

[rickudon]

6 hours ago, notrub said:

Further to earlier questions about farming and seeding etc. we are having a rethink in our family.  We would like to grow a crop that will not require so much water and not much fertiliser either.  There seems to be an abundance of dry chicken poop around here (sold by the bag) and wonder if this would work OK.

 

Our plan is to concentrate our efforts on a few rai for rice and figure out some other kind of crop for the rest.  Any ideas?  Would eucalyptus be feasible?  Ma will have a veg garden and a hosepipe to provide all the water she will need to provide for family use size crop.

There are lots of alternatives, but first you need to work out what you can SELL. No point growing something without a buyer. Eucalyptus does impoverish and poison the soil - so once grown at high density, hard to change to something else. The crops you can grow sucessfully depend on soil type, Ph, water availability, drainage and many other factors. Try the farming forum.