In response to my previous posts, a few reasons have been put forward to Thailand’s low rice yields. These include heavy reliance on rain-fed farming, especially in the north-east; low adoption of improved varieties; cultivation of rice for quality and flavour rather than quantity; low (or perhaps excessively high) fertiliser use; and environmental degradation. This paper by Benjavan Rerkasem has some invaluable insights.
Another possible factor to consider has been suggested by a colleague: an increase in broadcast rice cultivation rather than transplanting. This 2006 report from Ubon Ratchathani notes that some farmers are reverting to broadcasting rice given labour shortages and high labour costs. Yields are substantially lower (between 210 and 300 kilograms per rai rather than 600 with transplanting) but so too are input costs.
So, even though Thailand’s land productivity may not be very impressive, there may have been substantial movements in labour productivity as less labour intensive forms of rice cultivation have been adopted (both as a result of techniques like broadcasting and as a result of mechanisation). Any suggestions about labour productivity data would be greatly appreciated.
I would venture that being unduly labor-intensive is a major factor in the low yield. Thailand’s farms have traditionally been absent from anywhere near efficient mechanization, and this seems to have contributed heavily to the production problem.
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Living in a rice growing village in Surin and observing and writing about rice culture, I’d endorse the fact that labour shortages are now very real. People are increasingly reluctant to do the back breaking job of planting out the rice and expect more for the work. And as it’s seasonal work, they just aren’t there in the villages.
Likewise when it comes to harvesting it’s hard to find the labour. Hiring a mechanical harvester gets it home and dry very quickly and incidentally this enables the small farmer to recover some of the cost by getting paid in the time that’s been freed up to cut other peoples’ rice.
Mechanical harvesting even in Isaan is thus increasinglyeconomical but a feature is that some rice is wasted. It is thus another factor in lower yields.
Japan uses mechanical seed drills that presumably achieve a higher yield.
Andrew Hicks
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