However, the global climatic phenomenon is also likely to make animal
feed more expensive and cause water shortages in
parts of Thailand during next year's dry season, according to speakers
at a seminar sponsored by Kasetsart University's
Research and Development Institute.
Deeprom Chaiwongkiet, a lecturer at Kasetsart University's Faculty of
Science, warned that extra care will also have to be
taken to prevent forest fires from raging out of control during a
severe drought expected in 1998.
But overall, Deeprom argued that the ongoing El Nino-Southern
Oscillation (Enso) event the full name for a periodic shift in
weather patterns centred on the Pacific Ocean will ''present
an
opportunity for Thailand to sell more agricultural products at
higher prices on the world market".
Prices for commodities such as chillies, coffee and rubber are
expected to rise, in large part because of the Enso-inspired
drought which has hit neighbouring countries, including Indonesia,
the
Philippines and Malaysia. The Philippines has
already purchased 100,000 tonnes of rice from Thailand, he noted.
The haze being emitted by forest fires in Indonesia an environmental
crisis exacerbated by the delay of monsoon rains
caused by Enso will also affect agricultural products in these
countries, said Deeprom. Shrimp and fish from aquaculture
farms, for example, will be damaged by the fallout of ash.
Meanwhile, crop harvests in South America may be damaged by the floods
that El Nino usually brings.
''Crops in other countries are going to be affected more than in
Thailand, so we should use our water supply to boost
agricultural production, because it will be easier to sell at higher
prices," Deeprom maintained.
However, Thailand's farmers may be hampered by a lack of water,
particularly in the Central Plains, as a lack of rainfall in
the North has left water levels in the Bhumibol and Sirikit dams low.
As of Aug 31, the two major reservoirs contained a total
of 5,370 million cubic metres of usable water, nearly three million
cubic metres less than at the same time last year,
according to information from the Royal Irrigation Department.
''Rainfall in the North, Northeast and Central Plains so far this year
has been below normal and below last year's level,"
confirmed Muntana Brikshavana, an official at the Meteorology
Department's Climatology Division. ''Temperatures are also
generally higher than normal in Thailand during the cold season and
hot season after Enso."
Pramote Maiklad, director general of the Royal Irrigation Department
(RID), agreed that there is a relationship between the
onset of El Nino and water supply in Thailand. He presented several
charts showing that in most Enso years, water levels in
the Bhumibol dam and the Mool River are lower than normal.
El Nino is created when warm water on the surface of the Pacific
Ocean, which is normally blown westward by trade winds,
flows back eastward as trade winds die down or reverse direction. But
scientists remain uncertain as to what triggers this
event.