The Real Life of Thai Rice Farmers Who Produce to Feed the World

 Rice farmers make up the majority of all farmers in Thailand. Out of 5.6 million farming families in the entire country, 3.7 million families, or 66%, are rice farmers. Every year, rice farmers in Thailand cultivate around 8.96 to 9.28 million hectares of rice. They produce around 28-30 million tons of paddy per year for domestic consumption as well as foreign export. For over a decade now, Thailand has been the number one rice exporter in the world, with annual export volumes of 7-8 million tons of milled rice. Thailand’s income from these rice exports amounts to 80-100 billion baht per year.

From these impressive export figures, which have been rising over the last five years by an average rate of 1.74% per year, one might first imagine that Thai rice farmers probably have a good life and a comfortable existence with a rising income, since they should probably derive some degree of benefit from these exports.

Na Prang Rice: Rice for Export

There are two patterns of rice production in Thailand. The first is called na bi, and refers to seasonal rice that relies primarily on rain water. This kind of rice is only produced once a year. Thailand has approximately 8 million hectares of land that is planted with na bi. This area produces around 19-21 million tons of paddy per year. This pattern of production is found mostly in northeastern Thailand as well as in the highland areas of the north.

The second pattern of rice production, na prang, refers to rice that is planted independent of the seasons. It can be cultivated all year round, depends on irrigation systems, and can be planted two to three times per year. Around 1.28 to 1.44 million hectares of rice are cultivated according to this pattern of production, yielding approximately 6-7 tons of paddy annually. This pattern of production is found mostly in the central region and the lower northern region of the country.

Even though most of the rice produced in the country is na bi, the na prang pattern of production is the pattern for which the state sector has set clear export production goals. The Thai state is implementing a support policy in order expand the area under na prang production, while, at the same time, it is attempting to reduce the area under na bi production. It believes that planting na prang will lead to maximum efficiency in rice production, while it maintains that planting na bi results in low efficiency in production and is not worth the investment.

However, the goal of increasing production and returns per hectare in areas under na prang cultivation requires investment in factors of production and infrastructure development, namely the use of chemicals, agricultural machinery, adjustments to the physical condition of the rice field, and irrigation systems.

The Truth from the Field

The central region is regarded as an important source of food in Thailand. For over the last half century, the state has played a role in changing patterns of production and promoting the cultivation of na prang rice in the central region. It began with changing the variety of rice seed from indigenous varieties that were planted according to the season to new varieties that are not sensitive to sunlight and are planted all year round; constructing irrigation systems; flattening and broadening the rice fields; introducing to farmers and promoting the use of chemical fertilizer, chemical pesticides, etc. At present, the dominant pattern of rice production in the central region is na prang.

The villagers of Bang Kud Sub-district, Suwankaburi District, Chainat Province,[1][1] who serve as representatives of rice farmers in one are of the central region who plant na prang rice for export, had a similar experience with the state. The pattern of rice production in the area of Bang Kud Sub-district is na prang. Farmers can plant three times per year, with the time until harvest being four months each time. The varieties of rice currently planted are Pathum Thani, Hom Pathum, and Chainat. The average size of farmers’ rice fields is 1.6 hectares per family, which is considered to be small when compared to the average size of rice fields in other areas of Chainat Province and the central region, which are around 4.8 hectares per family.

In regard to land tenure patterns, 60-70% of rice farmers in the area do not have their own rice fields and must instead rent from landlords in order to engage in production. Even sadder is that the rice fields they must now rent are the same rice fields that originally belonged to them. However, because these farmers faced the problem of rising indebtedness, they had to sell off their own land in order to pay off their debt.

The level of indebtedness of the rice farmers in the area averages between 100,000-300,000 baht per family. As for the remaining rice farmers who still own their own land, the tendency will likely be for this land to slip out of their hands in the near future, since they are also confronting the same fate of entrapment in the snare of indebtedness.

This situation corresponds with the 1994-2006 national-level data on indebtedness from the National Statistical Office, which shows a sharply escalating trend of agricultural debt. Over the period 2002-2006, the level of farmers’ debt rose on average by 41%, from 82,485 baht to 116,585 baht per family.

Table Illustrating Situation of Agricultural Debt 1994 -2006

                                                           Source: National Statistical Office

One might ask why rice farmers are so deeply in debt. What are the primary reasons for this indebtedness? In fact, this situation arises because most rice farmers use the money they have borrowed from various financial institutions to buy their factors of production, invest in production, and pay for their family’s expenses, all of which rise every year. However, the main expenses are those that arise from input costs for production.

Studying the input costs for rice production for rice farmers in the area of Bang Kud Sub-district in 2007 reveals that these rice farmers had production costs of 23,593.75 baht per hectare. On average, this means that for each production cycle, rice farmers have to borrow at least around 37,750 baht per family to invest in production.

Table Illustrating Production Costs for One Hectare Na Prang Rice,

 Bang Kud Sub-district, 2007

Source: Information from seminar with CNPOT rice farmers, Chainat Province,

28 November 2007, Ban Yai, Chainat Province

When considering the various factors of production of rice farmers in the area of Bang Kud Sub-district, it can be seen that the input cost or expense that is the highest for rice cultivation is that of chemical products, namely chemical fertilizer, hormone and pesticide, which account for 43.97%. The second greatest expense is the cost of agricultural machinery, namely rental for tractors, sowing machines, harvesters and transport trucks, in addition to fuel, which in all account for 22.78%. Next comes rent for the rice fields themselves at 21.85%, followed by rice seed at 8.74% and, finally, labor costs, which amount to 2.65% of total production costs.

In 2007, average rice production per hectare for farmers in the area of Ban Yai, Chainat Province, stood at 4,375 kg. of paddy. This amount is slightly greater than the average na prang rice production in the central region of Thailand, which was 4,250 kg. of paddy per hectare. The price of paddy in 2007, which is the actual price at which rice farmers sold their harvest at the rice mill, was 5,500 baht per ton. It should be noted that this price is almost 1,000 baht lower than the market price, or the price at which the state purchased paddy, which was 6,509 baht, because most rice farmers were unable to access the state’s rice mortgage program since they only had limited volumes. An additional factor is that after completion of the harvest, most rice farmers have to sell their rice immediately, which leads to them receiving a lower price due to moisture. In addition, for rice farmers who are in debt to the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC), the BAAC subtracts an amount to service their debt, so there is no way for the farmers to come out with a positive lump sum of money, which compels them to borrow again.

After subtracting the production costs, the average net return for the rice farmer is 468.75 baht per hectare. On average, families will earn approximately 750 baht from one 4-month production cycle of rice. In other words, their net income from rice production comes to just 187.5 baht per month. This tiny amount of income for rice farmers in the area of Bang Kud is clearly not sufficient to cover the cost of living for a family. Consequently, many families are forced to send their children or grandchildren to work in the city, since the income they earn from growing na prang rice is unable to ensure the family’s survival.

It can be said that the situation of rice farmers today who produce rice for export in the area of Bang Kud Sub-district, Chainat Province, is simply one of production for debt repayment involving high input costs. After selling their rice, these farmers have to quickly use this money to pay back their debt and the interest, only to request another loan immediately in order to pay for the expenses involved in the next cycle of rice production. This vicious cycle of debt has existed for a long time already, ever since farmers began planting rice according to “new plan” agriculture.

The example of rice farmers in Bang Kud Sub-district, Chainat Province, allows us to see the real picture of life for the majority of rice farmers in the central region of Thailand. These rice farmers receive almost no benefit from producing rice for export. So how can we be proud about the impressive figures for the volume and income derived from rice exports from Thailand that are rising higher every year when the real life of Thai farmers amounts to a tragedy? What rice farmers do receive are the severely negative consequences on their families, such as indebtedness and the loss of their land for production to wealthy businesspeople. Furthermore, for those rice farmers who may still have their own production land left, given the pattern of production for rice produced for export, which does not yield enough in income to make production worthwhile, and thereby leads to continually higher levels of debt, the trend is clearly in the direction of these farmers also losing their land in the near future.

As for solutions, rice farmers in Chainat Province have banded together in an organization of adversely affected rice farmers within the Council of Networks of People’s Organizations of Thailand (CNPOT).[1][2] They have drawn lessons and conclusions from the problems that have arisen and are cooperating in order to solve their problems and escape from the cycle of debt. They have changed their production toward organic agriculture in order to reduce their production costs, and are applying various bodies of knowledge and techniques as well as disseminating them among their members. Examples of the activities and production techniques employed by the group at present include cultivating organic rice, producing fermented fertilizer and liquid biofertilizer, producing herbs to repel insects, etc., as well as mobilizing for advocacy on policy and political issues in order to solve the problems of rice farmers at large in Thailand.

Article by Areewan Kusanthia / Local Action Links