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Home » Background » Drought in Thailand: Farmers switch to watermelons

Drought in Thailand: Farmers switch to watermelons

By Lodewijk Lagemaat
Posted in Background
Tags: boeren, Drought, Watermelon

October 4, 2015

If anyone has been wondering lately why there are so many watermelons for sale, the following explanation is the answer.

Farmers in the province of Chanthaburi, affected by the strong and persistent drought, have turned around by growing watermelons instead of continuing to produce rice. This happened after the government declared several areas in the province a disaster area. The farmers then decided to switch to another product.

A few advantages soon became apparent. Much less water was needed than with rice and the melons could also be harvested after 60 days, while with rice cultivation this is only possible after four months. In addition, the melons could be transported to markets quite easily or traders bought them from the farmers, while rice, on the other hand, was much more cumbersome due to storage and sale.

Although the melon harvest is less financially favorable than rice cultivation, farmers now prefer this product. Better than leaving the land fallow or even watching rice crops fail due to lack of water.

Number of times read: 185

1 thought on “Drought in Thailand: Farmers switch to watermelons”

jasper says up

4 October 2015 at 11: 02

Chantaburi? We're almost drowning in the excessive rainfall this year, if I'm honest. The Southeast is always “wet”, one of the reasons why I live there.

Anyway, I hate rice, love watermelon, so win-win.

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Drought in Thailand: Farmers switch to watermelons

1 thought on “Drought in Thailand: Farmers switch to watermelons”

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