Women and young children are left behind in Ang Thong village as most men have left their homes to look for jobs elsewhere. Nauvarat Sooksamran

Machines brought unwelcome change

Prapaiparn Rathamatrit

The replacement of farm labourers with machinery brought major change to rural life in Thailand, throwing people out of work and breaking up families.

Many yearn for the old days. The labour was hard and wages were low, but so were prices-and there was work all year round.

Uncle Heng Rakkham, 64, a farmer of Ban Kasai in Pho Thong district of Ang Thong province, said the introduction of farm machinery destroyed Thai fam ily culture and brought social problems to the village.

"I want all iron-buffalos, ploughing machines and harvesting machines to disappear from my village, so farmers will again be hired to work in the rice fields and not have to leave the village to find labouring jobs in other prov inces." Mr Heng's dream is shared by Grandma Jian Somboon, 57, who was once the harvesting champion of the district.

She said her neighbours and land owners at Ban Thang Phra used to pay her to work their rice fields, to plough behind the buffalo, plant rice seedlings and later harvest the mature grain, but only after she finished working on her own family land.

In the old days, she would be paid eight baht to dig a pond 2x2 metres square and one metre deep, and receive 40 or 50 baht for helping plant and harvest a rice field.

She and her late husband between them earned enough money to raise their 10 children, because they had plenty of work all year round.

Their difficulties began with the arrival of "iron buffalos" more than 15 years ago. As the machines gained wide acceptance, fewer and fewer land owners hired farmers.

Now, she earns her living making baskets. Each one takes her three days and she gets 15 baht to 25 baht, depending on the size.

Uncle Heng said he worked in the rice fields even before he began school. As a labourer he was paid between 2.50 baht and 3 baht a day for harvesting, but he had to work all year round.

At that time, rice was only 10 baht per tang (15kg), compared to over 200 baht now.

When the ploughing machine was introduced into the village 20 years ago, landlords still hired farmers at harvest time, but the arrival of harvesting machines a few years later meant the end for farm labourers.

Mr Heng recalled the cost of plough ing, planting and harvesting rice employing labourers was about 1,100-1,200 baht per rai. It would cost more than 1, 400 baht using machines. They were faster but not as efficient and much grain was left on the ground.

Most of the tractor and machine operators came from neighbouring Suphan Buri, Ayutthaya, and Chai Nat. None of them were locals.

Mr Heng said he used machinery to farm two rai of land this year, and he suffered a loss of 600 baht.

"No-one around here has hired far mers to harvest rice for 15 years now," he lamented. "This has forced farmers to leave their homes to work in other provinces." Even though farmers and their fam ilies were not rich in the old days, they were happy since they could live together and enjoy a close traditional family culture.

Aunty Pim Salipol, 70, said modern machinery had ruined the rural way of life as only old people and children remained at home.

Uncle Heng and Aunty Pim agreed the generation gap caused by this new way of life had created many problems, including lack of respect by young peo ple towards their elders and drug addiction.

Another farmer said the economic boom during the Chatichai govern ment was also the cause of poverty among farmers and left many of them landless.

"Farmers in my district sold over 10,000 rai of land to speculators and foreigners.

"When the country faced hard times the new owners sold the soil and what had been fertile farm land became deep ponds and sand hills." he said.

" I want the government to help so that farmers can keep their families together."

Growing rice is becoming 'too expensive'

The modern agricultural system widely used by farmers in the Cen tral region has been blamed for the high capital investment costs needed to produce rice, NGO leader Banthorn Ondam said yesterday.

The new system requires the use of modern machinery, pesticides and chemical fertilizers. This has meant far mers must have more money to buy or hire machines.

Mr Banthorn said the system did not work with farmers in the Central region because they had no money for invest ment and he said nearly all were in debt to loan-sharks and ricemillers.

Moreover, there has been no finan cial assistance from government agen cies, with the exception of the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Co- operatives.

He termed the borrowing of funds to buy expensive farming equipment as tantamount to opening the door to hell.

"While the price of farming equip ment increases every year, the price of farm products do not increase in pro portion to the hike of investment costs, resulting in farmers becoming poorer and poorer," Mr Banthorn said.

He said alternative agriculture was only a partial solution to solving the problem of farmers, and the success of alternative agriculture depended more on soil fertility.

If the government was keen to help farmers it should solve their poverty problems, create jobs, provide land and long-term loans, he said.

© Copyright The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd. 1999

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