Farm-zoning scheme may boost Thailand's sugar output

About 6.17 million rai (987,000 hectares) of paddy fields are in areas that are not suitable for growing rice, and these fields could be converted to grow sugar cane, said Sirivuth Siamphakdee, president of the Thai Sugar Millers’ public relations working group. 

Also, these fields are in a 50-to-100-kilometre radius of sugar mills. Another 3.56 million rai of farmland could be converted to sugar and corn plantations, as they are near sugar and feed mills. 

Sirivuth said that under the three-year sugar-development plan, millers were planning boost their production capacity to support the rise in sugar-cane plantations, which will be increased by 7.2 million rai over the next three years. The increase will be staggered at 2.5 million in the 2014-15 harvest year, and 2.7 million and 2 million in the subsequent two years. In the previous harvest year, total sugar-cane plantation area stood at 9.33 million rai, producing 10.72 tonnes of cane per rai on average or 100 million tonnes.  He said sugar mills were ready to train farmers on sugar-cane plantation, adding that farmers who agreed to switch to sugar cane would have income security. 

“Sugar mills now have a combined capacity to crush 130 million tonnes of sugar cane. They have undergone programmes to increase their capacity. As such, the zoning scheme [which should increase sugar-cane output] will not pose problems for sugar mills. 

“This should give some assurance to the farmers who are willing to switch to sugar cane. All their output will definitely be bought for sugar production,” he said.