Ungelesener Beitragvon Naam Jai (?2008) » Do Mai 10, 2007 7:47 am
In the Kaeng Khro area ( between Chaiyaphum and Khon Kaen) the Government agrees to dig a water tank for 20,000bht over a 5 year loan, for peasant farmers. The tank about 20x50 metres wide is 3 metres deep but by the time it is stepped and banked it is considerably deeper. The water is then used for growing cash crops in the surrounding area,including chillie, beans, banana, and corn. The once a year ( and every year. No rotation here) rice crop is not sufficient to provide a living and this is being supplemented by producing poultry to sell at various stages of life in an extensive way. Rice is sold, fed to the poultry or eaten by the family. Well water is a possibility but is about ?25 metres below ground in this area. It is said not to be salty. Most smallholdings do not have main electricity so pumping water any distance is expensive. Most use a 6 metres pipe with belt driven power from the farm tractor. I should add that these storage tanks are not very efficient. They leak water, water is evaporated and most depend on the surrounding area small klongs and field flooding for a supply. On the plus side they can breed fish for the table if they don't dry out.
The Thai Government should be putting these small farms on the national power grid,and providing better road access, as was done free, in the UK, in 1948. The Government could as an alternative offer solar power systems. It needs to provide a better advisory service to the farmers who must expand or give up to survive as has happened throughout the western world. Mechanisation is needed and this could be done better through cooperatives than contractors. Again with Government support. Finally until prices are raised, artificially if necessary, and guaranteed through central Government buying schemes, the peasants will remain just that, peasants.
How should these schemes be paid for? A better distribution of wealth in
this Country, of course!