Roundup: Farmers in central Thailand urged to grow taro instead of rice

Farmers in Thailand's central region are suggested to replace rice with taro on their farms in a bid to cope with droughts, said a senior government official on Tuesday.

Those who have been used to cultivating rice, especially in the basin of Chao Praya River, are now advised to go for taro which will yield more income than rice, according to Apichart Lawanprasert, head of the Rice Department's Rice Research Center in Pathum Thani province.

The authorities have urged the farmers in 20-plus central provinces to turn to types of plants which do not need so much water as rice since critical droughts have reportedly prevailed throughout the region.

The rice department has discouraged the farmers from only growing rice on all arable plots of land and from doing extra crops of rice so as to contain severe drought problems.

The government has repeatedly called on the rice farmers to cultivate just one crop of the "water-consuming" rice in a year to better cope with droughts.

Premier Prayut Chan-o-cha recently blamed extra-crop farmings in the Chao Praya River basin in previous years which had allegedly demanded large volumes of water from major dams up north for this year's sustained droughts.

In particular, the premier pointed an accusing finger at a controversial rice subsidy program implemented by a previous Yingluck Shinawatra government.

The rice program had allegedly prompted the farmers to produce rice "in excess" at the expense of large volumes of the dam-generated water.

Those major dams, namely Bhumibol dam in Tak province, Sirikit dam in Uttaradit province, Kwai Noi dam in Pitsanulok province and Pasak Chonlasit dam in Lopburi province, could no longer release so much water to the Chao Praya River basin as in previous years because they had to keep large volumes in reserve and alleviate droughts this year and beyond, according to the premier.

Since last year, Gen Prayut has ordered the Irrigation Department to close water gates which control daily flows of water from those dams to deny irrigation for extra-crop season in low-lying areas throughout the central region.

The Chao Praya River basin is the country's largest producing area of the indigenous rice, which differs in texture, shape and prices from the relatively world-famous Hom Mali (fragrant jasmine) rice, largely grown in the Esarn (northeastern) region.

Meanwhile, Apichart assured that the rice farmers could even be better off by growing such edible roots as taro.

"Taro can bring up more income than rice. For instance, one ton of taro currently sells for an average of 25,000 baht (about 694 U.S. dollars), compared to the average price of only 6,500 baht (about 180 U.S. dollars) for a ton of rice," he said.

"Taro is not only on high demands throughout the country, especially during a vegetarian festival and Chinese New Year season, but is exported in limited quantity. There never seemed to be enough taro either for the domestic or export market," he said.

Nevertheless, the agency has by no means called on the farmers to stop growing rice completely but to spare some of their farmland for the cultivating of taro or other plants which do not consume so much water while leaving other plots as rice farms as usual, according to the director of the department's rice research center.

He added that one acre of farm could possibly yield as much as 10 tons of taro for which its producing costs might amount up to 2,800 U.S. dollars but it could sell for more than 6,900 U.S. dollars. Enditem