Vegetable growing

[nanglong218]

Other than an introduction this is my first post.   I retired last year and we came here to run the wife's farm. 24 rai (how many football pitches is that?).  Most is rice but the plan is to try self sustainability.  We plan a small/medium sized garden for personal production.  I've been reading a three year old post here about soil improvement,  an uphill task with the swamp we live in at the moment after nightly deluges.  Three kms south of me, off the 218 towards Chamni, is a place  calling itself Clean Farm.  It uses raised beds filled with rice husk and coconut fibre, maybe manure and soil.  On this is sat black plastic bags with more of this medium.  A pump powered irrigation system, probably with fertiliser added, takes care of nutrition and hopefully worms and bugs will take residence as the system becomes mature.
I'm going to give it a try with a shade house around it.  Has anyone else with more experience than me have views on the idea?

[Tassie]

What is the name of the village you live in?  Do you live far from the Cham ni amphere?
Regards

[nanglong218]

I live one village before Koksanuan, 36kms from Buriram. After the 218 dual section turn right before the fuel station.

[nanglong218]

Time to resurrect this thread this time with the emphasis on water.  I'm in Australia now for medical reasons, my wife, and stepson's wife from Surin, tell me the drought has caused a failure of the rice harvest.  Can anyone confirm this, give their views and give me a headsup on the repercussions.

[Starman]

Time to resurrect this thread this time with the emphasis on water.  I'm in Australia now for medical reasons, my wife, and stepson's wife from Surin, tell me the drought has caused a failure of the rice harvest.  Can anyone confirm this, give their views and give me a headsup on the repercussions.

There have been reports of harvest failure around Buriram province. The Government are issuing compensation to the tune of 1000 baht per rai.

[Tassie]

Yes, the drought has been severe with much of the current rice crop in Isan a disastrous failure.  Like in all broad acre farming, one has no control over the climate or rainfall.  If one can pump water to irrigate a crop then you have taken some step towards a favourable outcome.  Have a look at the stark poverty that most Isan Thai rice farmers live in, then you begin to realise that unless you can regulate the water flow, your potential crop outcome is quiet uncertain.
My wife told me that some years ago they had a 7 year rice crop failure (floods and or drought). 
Rice farming is traditional for Thai's but don't be swayed to grow rice as your wallet will soon be emptied.
Regards

[iammike]

I can also confirm this.

BIL 6 rai of Rice fields usually yields 10+ BIG Bags of rice, this year it was just over 1 Bag and many others in the village are the same.

Some even didn't have the rice harvester cut down the rice because that would mean another 600 THB per RAI wasted and they are cutting it down manually to salvage what can be salvaged.

[mahdam]

Time to resurrect this thread this time with the emphasis on water.  I'm in Australia now for medical reasons, my wife, and stepson's wife from Surin, tell me the drought has caused a failure of the rice harvest.  Can anyone confirm this, give their views and give me a headsup on the repercussions.

There have been reports of harvest failure around Buriram province. The Government are issuing compensation to the tune of 1000 baht per rai.

The Sister in law has been to register for the Government compensation scheme today, and reports that the payment will be 1,500 baht per rai, limited to 12 rai per address regardless, of how much land owned.

[Prakhonchai Nick]

Time to resurrect this thread this time with the emphasis on water.  I'm in Australia now for medical reasons, my wife, and stepson's wife from Surin, tell me the drought has caused a failure of the rice harvest.  Can anyone confirm this, give their views and give me a headsup on the repercussions.

There have been reports of harvest failure around Buriram province. The Government are issuing compensation to the tune of 1000 baht per rai.

The Sister in law has been to register for the Government compensation scheme today, and reports that the payment will be 1,500 baht per rai, limited to 12 rai per address regardless, of how much land owned.

Same here in Prakhonchai. My wife has 7 rai. Payment was due to be made this week but for unlnown reasons has been delayed until later this month

[nanglong218]

So that's it, is it?  Top compensation 18k baht,  $800aud, 16 bucks a week to last a year. There will be some very worried people in my village. Two doors down from us the man's harvester will be sitting idle. His was the first and in that year he made good money. Then others joined in, diluting the income while the bank loans needed paying.   So many are in debt to the  farmer's bank for seed and fertiliser.
I guess more of the youth will need to seek employment in BKK (or Pattaya) soon.
But let's not make a drama out of a crisis, with an election pending there may be interesting times ahead.

[DeputyDavid]

Can confirm same as I am mike in Lamplaimat area. The river we use for irrigation didn?t flow at all this year. Big losses.

[iammike]

<snip>   
I guess more of the youth will need to seek employment in BKK (or Pattaya) soon.
<snip>

Not only the youths. In our village there are at least 15+ (30+ year old) Guys who are considering going to Bangkok after New Years to find Jobs in Construction. Even the BIL is considering it, but we (my wife and myself) are against that as his health isn't that great.

Ps: Others are even thinking in going to Korea (but I think we all know how that will turn out )

[Freddy]

I'm in Non Tacrong, Hincon. The guy across the street fixes tractors and combines. It was noticeably quiet this year. Normally during rice season he's working on equipment all night but not this year. Can't say I was sorry about the lack of noise but I sympathize for the locals dependent upon a good rice crop.

[Starman]

Quite a few years back there was a project initiated by late King Rama 9. His proposal was that farmers should turn a quarter of their land over to water management.With the constant need for topsoil the digging is free as is the removal of the soil.

My father in law embraced this idea, after some persuasion. Since that time he has never had a failed crop. The water in the pond (small lake really) can easily be pumped out into the rice fields in case of drought and, in the case of flooding, excess water can be pumped into the pond from the rice fields.

Some farmers decided against this idea as they were not prepared to lose rice paddy field as this would impact on their harvest. This decision now seems extremely short sited. Surely it's better to have 3/4 of your usually crop rather than none at all.

[iammike]

Good one Starman, but one thing/comment.

But what do they do when the "Pond" runs out of water ?

This year the Water Level in the River here in the Area is extremely low and also the "Ponds" (which some farmers have) are completely empty, even some wells that people have (Pig farmers), have run dry and that was during the rainy season

Fortunate our well (which was dug during the top of the "Hot" season) hasn't run dry but here it's a hit and miss what kind of water (Salty (strange enough, which is AFAIK no good for RICE) or Not) you get when drilling a well.

Tip: When you drill a well, please get them to agree to a "Good Water" guarantee. And when they hit water at lets say 30 meters deep, let them drill another 5-10 meters deeper. And last one, dig a well at end of the "Hot/Dry" Season (but I think that's obvious )