Thailand: Problems Farmers are Facing
The problems facing the agriculture of Thailand have been the same for many years. The main issues facing the people are land (quality and quantity), land reform, and most importantly water. The purpose of this paper will be to discuss these problems and show how they affect the poorest people.
The first issue affecting the farmers’ is the land: its quality and quantity. The quality of the soil has been degraded because of pollution of the rivers. The Chao Phrya was once a very clean river but has now become the dumping site for everything. The other concern is the amount of salt in the soil. Salt goes from the rivers and then into the fields destroying the soils ability to grow crops.
The quantity of the land is also disputed. Some farmers would begin farming on a piece of land next to a forested area that appeared to be open. The government would come in and tell the farmers’ that the land was “private” and they would have to move. It turned out to be a scheme and the land was sold to the rich businessmen of Thailand. The forests were cleared, but the government placed a condition on the land. The condition was that the owners reforest the land. The businessman’s idea of reforestation was to plant eucalyptus trees. Eucalyptus trees are fast growing and are used to make paper. They are profitable but they also deplete the soil of nutrients.
Land reform is always a heated discussion between the people and the government in power at the time. In the early 1990’s Thailand was led by Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai. When he came to office he had a hope for land reform. Unfortunately, the programs were very slow in getting off the ground and land was given to the rich instead of helping the poor. His plan was to initiate a program that would redistribute the land back to the people. The plan was to give a million and a half acres back to the landless farmers. However his program failed and was used against him. Leekpai’s program led to investigations of his own government. The investigations were used by his opponents to overthrow him. The new Prime Minister Archa assumed power on these investigations. Land lost importance and moved to the back, passed around by different governments in power. Thai government leaders favored urbanization over agriculture.