Farmer commits suicide due to withered crop

The farmer’s body was found outside his hut in Tambon Ban Pheung at 9.45pm on Wednesday. After his son testified that two days ago his father had expressed stress over the failed crop, police put the death down to suicide. The relatives did not refute this conclusion and collected the body for religious rites. 

Meanwhile, the pressure of tap water in Petchabun province will be further lowered from 10am to 3pm from July 8 because the Padaeng reservoir, which supplies the waterworks system, has dropped very low, provincial waterworks office manager Theerawat Doungthong said. Water pressure in the province has been kept low from 10pm to 4pm since March. 

In Nakhon Phanom’s Ban Phaeng district, the Nong Kreu Khao pond that feeds the municipality’s water system has dried up, with villagers lamenting the lack of water for farming. 

Artificial rainmaking operations have yielded downpours in Nakhon Sawan province, though similar operations upstream to refill Phitsanulok’s Kwai Noi Dam has yielded little rainfall. Meanwhile, farmers in Phitsanulok’s Bang Rakham district have resorted to pawning their valuables so they can have water pumped into their fields.