The Thailand farming and cultivation thread

[PeteC]

The type I've been buying here, which I think I saw an Australian sticker on, have a tough, leathery skin that you buy when a dark green color and hard. They're ripe to eat when that green turns to a light black and they are just a bit soft.

The variety that I'm used to from California were a light green smooth skin both unripe and ripe. Do I remember correctly Migrant? Pete

[barrys]

I must admit that I didn't know that they even existed until I was about thirty![/quote]

So you've never tried a bacon & avocado sandwich ??!! [/quote]

No! is it any good?[/quote]


Delicious!!

[Takiap]

Now we're talking Grow those and I'll be a regular. I eat the Australian ones and the Thai, and to be honest, there's no real difference apart from price. They grow readily back in SA, and they're dirt cheap, but I found them quite costly in the UK and also here in Thailand. Even so, nothing beats mashed avocado on toast with butter and black pepper.

PS: As far as I know, they take about seven years to produce fruit. That's if grown from seed, which is probably not what you would do because they don't grow true. Best to get grafted ones and be done with it.

Once you harvest, you can sell them to all of us fellow HHAD members on here for 10 baht each

[migrant]

The type I've been buying here, which I think I saw an Australian sticker on, have a tough, leathery skin that you buy when a dark green color and hard. They're ripe to eat when that green turns to a light black and they are just a bit soft.

The variety that I'm used to from California were a light green smooth skin both unripe and ripe. Do I remember correctly Migrant? Pete

You're right Pete I've always found the Haas the best tasting.

I also remember reading, like Takiap said, that it takes a new tree years to produce, so growers graft mature trees to accelerate the process.

[georgy]

puree avocado with lots of garlic, add a little salt and pepper.
very yummy on bread or as a dip

[Spitfire]

Looks like the price of rice is going to rocket this next year, Thai news reporting hundreds of thousands of rai ruined from the floods everywhere. Think my in-laws said it was already reaching 18 baht a kilo at the collection points in the rural areas, was about 11-12 baht a month or so back, with speculation that it will rise further.

[PeteC]

With all this water I hope it will be possible, and permitted, to grow 3 crops this coming year. However, watch, when the dry season hits they'll say not enough water and we're in drought again. Pete

[STEVE G]

It's been a complete disaster for rice growing in Issan this year.
In the normal planting season there was no rain at all and now many of the paddies are flooded. I know they're supposed to be, but if you get too much water it's damaging to the crop.
Many people are going to be suffering in the year ahead as they still rely on rice to feed them for the year, even if you can't make much money out of farming it.
I'm hoping that my partner can at least harvest a couple of tons and I'm going to tell her to keep it so that nobody in the village ends up hungry.

[Spitfire]

Quite right Steve, rice is a sensitive plant and actually tricky to grow properly so that the yield is sufficient. It basically grows in a controlled level/flood of water, and as you say, too much water is a disaster and it will just fall over and die, acquiring a distinctive dark colour as time goes on. If you drive up Mittrapharb Rd at the moment towards Khon Kaen then many of the adjacent fields are just black.

[Spitfire]

Just a hypothetical afterthought, as have read another thread about volcanoes, if that volcano blows and it's as big as they seem worried about, coupled with prevailing winds that may blow it all over the place, including here or thereabouts, then farming in general might become a bit of a moot point for many in South/Southeast Asia, even Australasia etc.

[Spitfire]

As an aside, then there is some debate upon where the next generation of farmers are coming from anyhow.

For now, it's OK, because the elder (55+) generation are still in control and administrating the land, that's for now.

The dividing of farms, on a family village scale, is a bit of an interesting point as so many of these sons and daughters have been sent to college to get degrees etc and all that comes with it, we all know about this.

Who's going to till the land in 15 years?

All the farmers' kids are studying 'Public Health' or 'Logistics' etc and there's no guarantee of a good job afterwards either. They are, however, not going to be farmers.

It will be interesting to see who tills the land in 10-15 years, maybe we'll see bigger farms etc an all, as people slowly sell their land, perhaps it's slowly inevitable.

The floor is open though. I'm also sure we'll still see this continued exodus to the cities too, just being observational everyone.

However, as always, the more replies/comments the better.

[STEVE G]

Yes, I think it's already happening, villagers are either combining their land into family co-operatives or renting or selling to large scale commercial farmers.
I suppose it will end up more like the West with a few people farming large areas with mechanisation whilst everyone else works in cities.

[PeteC]

I not sure farmer's kids are college bound, more like factory bound IMO. The fall back to farming is not that distant then.

What the country could benefit from are a few good agricultural colleges. Maybe they exist as part of the technical colleges but I've never heard or read about them. Pete

EDIT: Here's an example of one I grew up near, showing what they teach. http://www.delval.edu/cms/index.php/del ... emics/C15/

[Spitfire]

As most of us know, it's rice harvesting time now and was talking to some relatives/friends of family etc and they were insinuating that growing rice on a farm smaller than 15 rai now is becoming untenable (break even at best), ie it's more expensive to grow it than the rice is worth after all spent and done and ready to be sold.

From what I can gather, Thai not perfect yet though, they have been saved by the increase in the price of rice at sale point due to recent events/situations (domestic floods plus factors abroad etc), otherwise it's almost more expensive to cultivate it on a small level than what you get as everything needed is much more expensive than before. Of course, many grow just to eat and survive but seems to be getting more expensive to do it now.

Maybe we are soon to enter the realms of larger farms on a much larger scale, even though happening slightly already in some areas.

Many of the younger generation have no desire to be farmers as it means work, sweat and tears, kids aren't up for that these days, it's all mobile phones/7-11/Internet dating and Hi5 coupled with western electronic stuff.

Sorry this reply is a bit late Pete to your above post as was waiting for more info that I could post about, which just came together today with observations/conversation with a wide spectrum in different social existences, but you'd be amazed how many students put down "Farmer" as the occupation of there parents in writing exercises about themselves.

However, they are mostly female, so could be six of one and half a dozen of the other there. Maybe the brother is in a factory.

Anyone got any comment on the above?

[STEVE G]

I was talking to my partner on the phone earlier and this year is going to be a big loss on rice in that area to the point where many farmers aren't going to bother planting the stuff next year.
They're better off renting out their land for sugar farming which at least will give you something, however small, rather than a loss which just drives you further into dept.
I'm still rather of the opinion that growing various foods just for subsistance is the way ahead as the saving in your food bill could easily outweigh any small profit from crops (if you get any!), particularly for a large family.