In Baan Tiam in Chiang Mai province there has been very significant transformation in dry season cultivation. A few years ago garlic was all the rage. But it rapidly lost popularity as a result of reductions in yield and the impact of the free-trade agreement with China. A range of other crops have been tried – peas, beans, eggplants, tomatoes, cabbages, zucchinis and more. Over the past two or three years tobacco has greatly increased in popularity. It is grown under contract (albeit an informal, verbal one) and one of the main attractions is that the company, not the farmer, pays for the seedlings and the fertiliser. This contract farming is an attractive option for some, especially those burdened by the debts from failed garlic crops.
Visiting a couple of weeks ago I was interested to see that a new dry-season crop was being tried – rice. Baan Tiam’s farmers are avid rice cultivators during the wet season but I had never seen it grown in the dry season. Two reasons were given for this innovation. First, flooding during the wet season had destroyed a lot of the rice crop. But flooding here is a regular event and perhaps even more important was the high price of rice. Those who had lost rice were reluctant to buy their rice from local suppliers, who were selling milled rice for up to 17 baht per kilogram. And even some of those who had not lost their rice thought that the high price represented an opportunity for a healthy cash sale.
It will be interesting to see if this catches on. I suspect not. Baan Tiam’s irrigation water supplies this year seem more than adequate. But this is not always the case and I have seen years when the stream running through the village has almost run dry. A wet rice crop under such conditions would not be a pretty sight!
2 responses so far ↓
1 Jon Fernquest // Feb 9, 2007 at 10:23 pm
Re: Tobacco: “Over the past two or three years tobacco has greatly increased in popularity. It is grown under contract (albeit an informal, verbal one) and one of the main attractions is that the company, not the farmer, pays for the seedlings and the fertiliser.”
One farmer, due west of Chiang Rai just when you start going up in the foothills, told me that there was an agricultural extension program for higher quality tobacco being funded by a foreign tobacco company, I believe American. Corn for pig feed was all the rage a couple of years ago too.
[I had the opportunity to talk to farmers when Alliance Francaise Photography Club in Chiang Rai put on an exhibit at Chiang Saen museum a couple of years ago. Nineteenth century photos of the Lamet, a Cambodian hill tribe were also included. The French have lot of real down home and nice things in Thailand, like their recent macrophotography seminar in Chiang Rai.]
2 phrek gypmantasiri // Mar 9, 2007 at 7:14 pm
For the first time in many years the northern Thai farmers received higher price for glutinous rice than non-glutinous rice in 2006-07 season. Recently farmers have been promoted to grow high quality non-glutinous rice for export, namely Kao Dawk Mali 105 or Hom Mali rice, which had highest mortgaged price in 2005 provided by the government.
In the 2006 season, farmers continued to allocate larger proportion of their land to non-glutinous rice, hoping to receive high mortgaged price as in 2005. Widespread flooding during the season had damaged rice crop, thus causing price of glutinous rice, which is the staple food crop for the local Northern Thai, to go up.
With availability of non-photosensitive and high yielding rice varieties, such as RD 10, and San Patong 1, farmers are able to plant glutinous rice in dry season. The dry season glutinous rice crop, which will be harvested in May-June, will provide food security as well as good income during June to November, before the harvest of the rainy season rice in 2007.
In general tobacco has lost its competitiveness. However, in area with favorable soil and water conditions, various forms of contract tobacco farming exist. Farmers are paid on the fresh weight basis. Local tobacco, which is sun cured, continues to be planted by farmers for local market.
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