Insight Focus

  • Still waiting for proper rains.
  • Cane leaves have repeatedly wilted and recovered thanks to inconsistent rains.
  • The lack of rain remains the number one concern.
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What have you been up to?

I have already finished applying the first round of fertilizer and am now applying a second round of urea. This will continue for the next 6 weeks or so. Otherwise, there is not much activity to do except wait for the rain to come.

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Again, I am using both labour and machinery for fertilizer and herbicide application.

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What stage is your crop at?

The cane is now starting to develop because of the rain, about 3 joints now for 23/24 crop season.

However, the rainfall is quiet inconsistent, as a result cane leaves repeatedly wilt and recover again and again.

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Last month I harvested some casava root, but I was not happy about the size, so I plan to wait for 2 more months for it to grow bigger.

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Hopefully I can start harvesting again in early August when the size should be big enough with high starch content to distribute into the market.

What’s your biggest concern?

Of course, rainfall is still the number one concern for me. As I mentioned before, in Khon Kaen province farmers mostly rely on natural rainfall for almost every crop, including cane.

This month the rainfall per day is only around 10mm which is quite low for a post-rainy season.

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However, we are getting close to rainy season in about few months, so I hope that cane will develop more during those periods.

Khun Chairat

Chairat is a full-time farmer, living in Nam Phong (Khon Kaen) Thailand. Today, the farm is 192 hectares and is predominantly used to sugarcane, as well as cassava and rice. Chairat's sugarcane goes straight to the sugar mills. His cassava goes to the starch mills and local aggregators. Any rice is consumed by him, his family and farm workers.
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