Tackling air pollution from burning crop residues: Thailand launches 8 billion baht plan for sustainable sugar cane production
In a groundbreaking move, the Thai government is committed to a more environmentally friendly future with an 8 billion baht campaign to promote sustainable sugar cane farming. The aim is to reduce emissions of harmful PM2.5 particles and encourage farmers to adopt environmentally conscious agricultural practices. This initiative, supported by the Cane and Sugar Board, marks an important milestone in Thailand's agricultural policy.
Bangkok will be under a blanket of smog and dangerous particulate matter for the next three days
Bangkok will be covered in dangerous smog for the next three days. That's because farmers set fire to sugar cane fields. The newly formed Center for Air Pollution Mitigation (CAPM) expects high levels of PM 2,5 dust particles in the capital and neighboring provinces, which are unhealthy for humans and animals.
Two weeks ago, riots broke out between demonstrators and security forces in Roi Et at a hearing on the planned construction of a sugar factory in the Pathum Rat district. The Banpong Sugar Company wants to build a sugar cane processing plant there with a target capacity of 24.000 tons of sugar cane per day.
Twente folktale told in a Thai situation
It is rainy season in Thailand and I thought it would be a good time to translate a Twente folktale that came up on Facebook this week into Dutch and to situate the story in Thailand.
Reader question: Yield of a sugar cane rai?
My girlfriend has 14 rai farmland. The 3-year oral lease/rental contract to family expires. I strongly suspect that in renting her land to that family, who uses it for the production of sugar cane, she is being cheated by them.
Sugar cane, less sweet for the farmers
Besides the production of rice, sugar cane is a very important product for the Thai economy. The approximately fifty sugar factories generate an annual turnover of more than five hundred thousand million baht. The sugar industry is still growing and was included in the so-called “Thai kitchen of the World” program by the government a few years ago. Besides being an important export product, this agricultural activity is also very important for employment. It almost seems untrue, but about one and a half million people are…