Water Buffalo Vrs Tractors

[FreeTime]

The use of water buffaloes in Thai farming is on the upswing again:

 

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79391

 

[Julian2]

Excellent article.

I've seen a lot more calves around the village than in the past.

I suppose the young guys will have to learn how to drive them though.

[Torneyboy]

"Look around, you see buffalo, but you also see there are no new tractors. The people have stopped buying them because of the high fuel prices."

 

Back to basics ..hard yakka for them ...

[Central Scrutinizer]

All,

 

"Last year, he harvested 160 sacks of rice of 30kg each, 95 of which were kept for family consumption and the remainder sold at 250 baht ($7.80) each. He also harvested 45 tonnes of sugarcane at 680 baht ($21) per tonne. Any profit goes for "fertiliser, consumption of other foods for the family and for making merit [giving financial offerings at the local Buddhist temple]"."

 

So this one farmer made 46,850 baht (rice = 16,250 baht and sugarcane = 30,600 baht) for the year off his rice and sugarcane crops. Plus whatever his wife might have made weaving silk, making mats and pillows, burning wood for charcoal to use themselves while selling any extra for a bit of cash, the list is endless what these women do to help supplement their family income. Goes to show how little they can live on really. And he also gives to the Wat/Buddha financial offerings.

 

So, to those who say the Isaan farmers have little regard for educating their children... show me how the fuck this one farmer is supposed to send his kids off to uni or even private schooling to even be able qualify for uni. Less money offerings to Buddha maybe?

 

There should be free schooling for all here at decent schools with qualified teachers. That includes book fees, money for the 'uniforms' the schools require, free higher education, etc. But that would require spending all the pork barrel money used in Krueng Thep for the middle class projects wanted by BKK's elite to take a backseat for a while. And heaven forbid the Isaan people should be able get a decent free education. Where would all the laborers, maids, taxi-drivers, etc. come from then?

 

For those who say the Isaan men are lazy... for every layabout deadbeat in the villages there are 10 men working their asses off just trying to survive (let alone get ahead). I've lived in a village. I see what goes on. Most fathers are there in the village for the plowing, planting, and then later the harvesting. In between time they are in the cities working whatever jobs they can find, many many going to BKK and living in squalid conditions while working construction, or painting, selling ice creams from a rented cart, driving a taxi, etc. to make ends meet and have a little extra to buy the kids school clothes, pay for the fees the gov schools demand all the time, and to pay the doctor and hospital costs when their aging parents get sick, or themselves, the wife and the kids. (The 30 Baht health scheme was a joke, but it was better at least than before when they had NO help from the government at all.)

 

Some of these guys, the majority I have seen, work their balls off from sunrise to sunset, 24/7, all year except the major holidays. Many do not go to a doctor or a dentist because they cannot afford to, or use the money for their own kids or parents healthcare; themselves foregoing their own healthcare, which leads to many going to an early funeral pyre. Just getting up the money to get a bus down to BKK to get to work is a problem for many. The Isaan guys working in BKK and other cities in between harvest time and planting eat the cheapest foods they can find, and live in the shanty shack ghettos you see everywhere in BKK, if you look and take any notice of them as your air conditioned taxi drives by. So they can save a bit to send to their kids, wives and elderly parents (elderly parents and grandparents who have lived an even harder life with much less decent healthcare, and who worked under even harsher conditions their whole lives).

 

Makes one wonder what a wife and family do to survive if the husband dies an early death. Out of desperation some do exactly what you just thought reading this.

 

Are there Thai/Isaan people who are lazy? Sure are. Are there Thai/Isaan families who will send their daughters off to whore while they sit back and live off the much more lucrative incomes provided by the rich (comparatively speaking) foreigners who come here to fuck their women? Sure are. But not nearly as many as those who frequent the bars and farang ghettos think. Not by a long shot.

 

If the government actually cared there would be a lot more being given to help the poor here, the marginal farmers barely surviving, to help themselves make a better life for themselves and their kids. But you see, the government doesn't care really, until it comes election time and they see all those votes out there. It is why Taksin was elected. He made promises, and kept many of them, to these rural poor. They voted for TRT because TRT at least gave them something more than previous governments had.

 

With the cost of fertilizer going up so much so quickly why doesn't the government help the farmers by subsidizing it like they used to do with the oil? Another thing is/would be to take out the middleman in the rice business and do it themselves at a better price for the rice farmers and such. Cut out the middleman and the government would be able to give a better price per kilo to the farmers I would think. They should also be subsidizing the fuel used in the farm tractors as they did/do the fuel used on the fishing boats. This government is worthless and useless to the people, and continues to be even though Samak recently threw some bones to the poor and the lower class. Not enough. It continues to be a joke.

 

Cent

[Flashermac]

What about the money he makes in Bangkok driving a taxi?

 

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

What about it, Flash? He uses some to live off of, and sends the rest to his wife in Isaan. Most do. Some waste it on mia nois, booze and gambling, just like men anywhere away from home and their wives and kids if they are irresponsible. But that is not the majority of these men who are hard working family guys just trying to get by and support their families. But that isn't mentioned in this farmers part of the article. Some do work away, some don't and do things around the village to make extra cash, if there is something to do.

 

Cent

[Central Scrutinizer]

The gross national annual income as of 2006 is 2,990 USD. I'd imagine many in Isaan survive on less.

 

[Neo]

With the cost of fertilizer going up so much so quickly why doesn't the government help the farmers by subsidizing it like they used to do with the oil?

I am curious why instead farmers don't go organic? The price of herbacides and pesticides is killing them and their land. Each year they need to use more and it is a losing battle. On the other hand organic meets prized export specifications and fetches a higher profit (not necessarily a higher yield, but PROFIT is what counts). And most importantly to us farangs, it puts an end to burning the rice stalks polluting the air!!! These are used to enrich the soil instead of unwanted trash which happened when fertilizer came along.

 

Another thing is/would be to take out the middleman in the rice business and do it themselves

Definitely. From what I understand is the Chinese middlemen are cleaning house with amazing profits while the farmers just get into more debt.

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

Flash,

 

I'd add, how much do you guys think a taxi driver makes for a day once you deduct the cost of renting the taxi and the cost of his fuel for the day? Recently the government finally raised the taxi charges. How many years has it been since the previous one? 5? More? These guys don't make much really all said and done after the deductions/costs they incur.

 

And the laborers and such make less.

 

I was staying at a friend's condo recently in Bangkok. The place next door to his building was raized and a new condominium complex was being put up. We watched these guys (and gals) working almost every day from his balcony. Jesus christ! For the work they do, incredibly physical, hot and dirty nasty work, they make peanuts. It makes you glad to have been born in the west. Long hot hours busting hump for the price we pay for an overpriced Soi Cowboy bar or Nana Plaza beer or ladydrink. All day working for the price of a beer or two for us. Should make us feel lucky we have a different sort of life.

 

Cent

[Central Scrutinizer]

Neo,

 

Many are starting to use natural fertilizers. And some NGO and government people are starting (and have been the past few years actually I have read) to advocate the natural ways to fertilize due to many 1st world countries being willing to pay big money for organically grown produce.

 

I'd think the reason they have been using chemical fertilizers would have been due to these chemicals producing a higher yield per rai/hectare for the crops. I'm not really sure, but that would be my guess. It's likely easier and less time consuming as well I'd think. I've seen how they do this in the rice fields. It can be done very quickly. They have a bag of the pellets of fertilizer slung over their shoulder and they just walk up and down the field strewing it around. Later they plow it under into the dirt with the rice tractor. Pretty quick to do.

 

Mike