Farmers opt for watermelon
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Rice farmers in drought-hit Chanthaburi province have found a way to survive the dry season by turning to watermelon cultivation, the National News Bureau of Thailand reported yesterday.
The switch to watermelons, which need less water, followed the provincial authority’s decision to declare several districts disaster zones. A farmer said a melon was fully grown in 60 days, whereas rice took as long as four months to grow and required much more water.
He also said transporting the produce to market was easy because merchants came to farming areas to buy them. Though farming watermelons has not been very profitable yet, farmers said it was better than leaving their farm unused but added that pests and climate volatility were still concerns.
