Farmers burning sugarcane face additional fees for milling their crop

[webfact]

Farmers burning sugarcane face additional fees for milling their crop

 

 

Sugarcane growers, who burn their crops before harvesting, will be charged 30 baht/tonne for the burnt sugarcane delivered to sugar mills, while the mills will be levied 12 baht/tonne for accepting burnt cane exceeding the set limits.

 

Industry Ministry spokeswoman Ms. Suchada Taensap said today that the measure is intended to discourage sugarcane farmers from burning their crops to save labour costs.

 

Widespread sugarcane burning has become the norm in many provinces during the harvest season, despite the fact that the practice is illegal and violators face heavy fines. The fees will be charged by the Sugarcane and Sugar Committee’s Office and paid to farmers who do not burn their crops, as an incentive to continue the practice.

 

Full story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/farmers-burning-sugarcane-face-additional-fees-for-milling-their-crop/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2020-01-24

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[Chazar]

yeah  sure  right.........so  you have an inspector at every  factory day and night 24hours who is  unbribeable do you........more total and utter BS from the useless non elected govt who  love to show  us  al how much they arent really doing..................I  know.......why  not a  points  system....how  about 1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 points  maximum and 1  point  per infringement?

[Crossy]

Unless I'm going mad (quite possible) I recall a very similar headline a few months back.

 

The net result has been, of course, zero.

 

[pegman]

Fail!

[Chazar]

8 minutes ago, pegman said:

Fail!

its  called  "lip  service"............theyre great  at  that

[Chazar]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

The fees will be charged by the Sugarcane and Sugar Committee’s Office

even  more  hilarious

[30la]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Sugarcane growers, who burn their crops before harvesting, will be charged 30 baht/tonne for the burnt sugarcane delivered to sugar mills, while the mills will be levied 12 baht/tonne for accepting burnt cane exceeding the set limits.

It will end as always, a "small" offer to the right person and the fine is buried.

[Youlike]

Let them grow mango's, have you seen the price of dehydrated mango in thailand? Extreme expensive.

 

Thailand should be the hub of mango, mango jam, dried mango, frozen mango, mango candy, mango juice......sell that to the rich countries.

[Crossy]

At a raw cane price of about 800 Baht per tonne (latest price I could find) a total levy of 42 Baht per tonne for burnt cane  = about 5%.

 

Enough of a penalty??

 

[Sydebolle]

Ha ha ha - and you want to tell me, that this will change anything? The boys doing their rounds inspecting will upgrade from BMW to Mercedes - that‘s all. 

Put hefty fines on all, the farmer, the trucker, the miller - everybody. You are killing your own country and your own people. Now how hopelessly stupid is that .......... mind boggling 

[mickey rat]

That'll fix it! ????

[bluejets]

Given most Thai are pretty resourceful, I would expect any extra fee for "burnt cane" would very quickly burn out given most would realise, cut it green, then burn the thrash in the paddock.

Same as happens in many instances in Aus.

Fine for those who say"plough it back in to the ground" but if one considers dust to dust effect, there are many things used to get this trash back into the ground.

Fuel, oils, new tractors, new ploughs ( old draught horses too slow and greenies won't let anyone cut a tree down to build a plough these days)

and the time.

A match does it in no time.

Edited January 24, 2020 by bluejets

[ben2talk]

It's comical for sure - there shouldn't be any manual harvesting of sugar cane at all; only Thailand would try to hang on to an increasingly outdated method of harvesting as hiring manual cane cutters.

 

The solution is to force cooperation and investment in harvesting machines. The government could even buy a few and offer them on a hire basis...

 

Certainly if you want to force farmers to do things the hard way (the right way) then you must push much harder to force investment.

 

As usual, mostly this is about Lip Service.

 

 

 

[unamazedloso]

This is another blatant lie. The local cane factory to me made a statement that they would not accept burnt cane. I have only seen burnt cane entering when i pass daily. This is more BS to pretend they are doing something because No biz is going to pay more are they? Especially not a Thai biz and this is why people burn because its cheaper to pay poor slaves to cut cane than it is to hire a harvester so we all have to reach an early grave be ause of greed that foes all the way to money bags prayut which is obvious given his made up % of causes of pollution and also telling people he is tough and its fine. No PM anywhere in the world could be so dumb as to say such things. Makes me sick. Seems a lot of Thais completely agree.

 

[MaxLee]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Farmers burning sugarcane face additional fees for milling their crop

For every fee, there is an extra brown envelops from the influential Agricultural organizations

[zydeco]

I think I saw in my newsfeed from The Bangkok Post that last year the government passed a bill allowing only an allotment of 20 percent burned sugarcane for milling. And that just this past November the cabinet decided to increase it to 50 percent. Perfect timing!

[hotchilli]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Sugarcane growers, who burn their crops before harvesting, will be charged 30 baht/tonne for the burnt sugarcane delivered to sugar mills, while the mills will be levied 12 baht/tonne for accepting burnt cane exceeding the set limits.

Charge them to make extra money instead of prosecuting them, the Thai solution to all things !

And who's going to do the checks at the mills?

[Chazar]

4 hours ago, Crossy said:

Unless I'm going mad (quite possible) I recall a very similar headline a few months back.

 

The net result has been, of course, zero.

 

better than expected  then!

[Chazar]

Can  just  imagine the Thai inspector...........owner,  so  youre  the new inspector, you see that burnt  sugar  cane  arriving......it  isnt is  it? 1000 baht................. but maybe  one of them is a bit stricter.....ok 2000 baht................ok  final  offer  ,  pulls out  gun waves machete............... inspector.........what  burnt sugar sir?

[onekoolguy]

Yes it costs the farmers more for labor to not burn, but they have zero concern about the millions of people that are faced with serious continuing health issues due to their actions!

[Elkski]

It should  be military striker tanks at  sugar cane plants.  Absolutely no burnt cane.   Sorry if you burnt yours this year.   You get 50%

[Gecko123]

The burning of sugar cane and the air pollution and damage to the environment it causes is a hidden production cost which up until now society has borne. It's great that this practice is being eliminated, but expecting the farmer to shoulder the additional production costs that come from harvesting without burning is completely unreasonable. The farmer has to be compensated for these higher costs which will ultimately mean higher consumer prices for sugar.

 

Edit: Speaking for myself, I would happily pay a higher price for sugar if it meant breathing cleaner air.

Edited January 24, 2020 by Gecko123

[zydeco]

4 minutes ago, Gecko123 said:

The farmer has to be compensated for these higher costs which will ultimately mean higher consumer prices for sugar.

I thought this was mainly about ethanol? 

[bogozy]

Can not prohibit the burning process. IT is not working. Would be more useful to support the sugar cane harvester machines. 

[Matzzon]

As long as there is a way to pay, the pollution will stay.

[URMySunshine]

From my personal point of view,  and I was going that way anyway if the burning continues and affects the areas I want to be in I will be spending as little as possible/no time there in the future. My wife will spend quality time with her family , largely indoors and with the air purifier on. The smoke situation has finally made the should I / shouldn't I dilemna a very easy one. Life's too short to spend the time choking on the air if you have a choice. 

[Chazar]

5 hours ago, 30la said:

It will end as always, a "small" offer to the right person and the fine is buried.

nah,  sugar  price  will  go  up  on the shelves to cover it............in effect no change except  price increase, 40  baht a ton is  peanuts

[Chazar]

2 hours ago, zydeco said:

I thought this was mainly about ethanol? 

yeah  i  feel  all environmentally friendly  now when i  fill  up.................shame  all that  pollution offsets it  by  a  mile. Environmentally nuts.as  usual

[khunPer]

Quote

The fees will be charged by the Sugarcane and Sugar Committee’s Office and paid to farmers who do not burn their crops, as an incentive to continue the practice.

During the 2018-19 sugarcane harvest season, about 20 million tonnes, or 49.1% of all the cane that were sent to sugar mills was burnt.

It's a step in the right direction to use economy, but it's a question if the fee is high enough...

5 hours ago, Crossy said:

At a raw cane price of about 800 Baht per tonne (latest price I could find) a total levy of 42 Baht per tonne for burnt cane  = about 5%.

How much is saved by a farmer burning the sugar cane, instead of using labor to cut it?

If a penalty fee shall make sense, it shall be a benefit not to burn it...

[overherebc]

3 hours ago, Chazar said:

nah,  sugar  price  will  go  up  on the shelves to cover it............in effect no change except  price increase, 40  baht a ton is  peanuts

Problem is those peanuts grow somehow into 20 baht a kilo' at the shops.