Tough blow for rice farmers already in debt

IF THE Cabinet resolves tomorrow to turn off irrigated water for people seeking to grow off-season rice it would deal another serious blow to farmers already drowning in debt. 

“We haven’t planted any paddy three times already (for two off-season crops and one main crop), and now the government tells us not to plant any rice again. Now we have nothing,” Ubolsak Bualuang-ngam, chairman of the central agricultural committee, said last week.

“Most rice farmers in Lop Buri have Bt350,000 in debt and some farmers even hung themselves on a tree to avoid debt,” said Ubolsak, who also leads the Lop Buri Farmers Assembly. 

This central province and the Pasak River basin have already suffered from a severe shortage of water for farming. 

The idea to suspend the planting of off-season crop on 15 million rai of paddy fields will be proposed to the Cabinet by Agriculture Minister Chatchai Sarikalya because of an estimate that by the end of the wet season next month, stored water would amount to 3.6 billion cubic metres – which is not enough for farming. 

“This crisis is more severe than the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry can handle alone, so we have to ask the Cabinet to set up a committee to solve it at the national level,” Chatchai said. 

“We also have to gather projects under various agencies to hire farmers. This is to let the farmers earn some money to replace the missed income from past rice growing sessions this year (which affected 87,000 rai) and the off-season rice growing at 15 million |rai of irrigation-zoned rice fields from November 1 to April 30,” he said. 

The order, to be strictly followed and enforced, would not need to be announced under Section 44 of the provisional charter, he said. 

Pasak Jolasid Dam, which receives 1.23 million cubic metres of water daily, now has 73 million cu m and was releasing five cu m per second or 1.3 million cu m a day, Irrigation Office 10 director Attaporn Panyachom said. 

Most dams in Lop Buri were also at less than 50 per cent of capacity, he said. The Kut Ta Phet Reservoir in Lam Sonthi district was down to 23 per cent, Sap Takhian Reservoir in the same district down to 7 per cent and Huai Hin Reservoir in Chai Badan district to 24 per cent, he said. 

The government claims that it has arranged income-generating projects to help farmers, but Ong-art Suwanphong from the Farmers’ School in Ang Thong’s Chaiyo district said that he didn’t see any such scheme being implemented. Farmers would actually prefer water supply to compensation, but if the government must stop the water supply for rice, they should make sure the compensation for farmers is sufficient, he said. “Farmers are disheartened. Many of those with five to 10 rai of paddy fields gave up. 

“Last year they suffered from a rat outbreak and this year saw their hope of regaining rice-growing income shattered by the lack of water supplies – so they turned to doing odd jobs,” he said.