Jasmine Rice - Khao Hom Mali 

such a beautiful series about rice!

Thank you Jay Yen Yen ...

the current rice issue is most important for the nation, and to the survival of people who relies on the production of rice as food and as prime export ...

Irrigation is the essential to expansion and improvement of rice production, however, long-term irrigation project does not offer short-term political gain, because it requires years for the results to be realised. Some villages face annual droughts and are dubbed "chronic drought-affected villages". Thus, the villagers are forced to wait desperately for money handouts (vote buyings) from politicians. Many of the younger generation have decided to leave their farms to find jobs in the cities; they feel too insecure to continue on the land, because of the unpredictable nature of the weather year in year out ...

Excellent picture. Thank you for this wonderful series about rice--an essential staple for much of the world. The food crisis brings forth the dilemmas and contradictions of free market capitalist economy. But I am afraid that most are unable to see and will continue proposing and implementing half-measures instead of looking and addressing the real causes which led to the current situation.

Thank you Aref for your visit and comments...

since the doubling of retail price of rice - the situation in Thailand is getting more FUDGED-UP,
not one cent of the increase has trickled down to the farmers!! it is only benefitting the BIG middle-men like the big exporters, the millers and THE GOVERNMENT !! more taxes, more controls, but never ever in the interests of the farmers !!

they're now scheming up these G2G methods - government to government deals !

Politico-economical-agricultural-market structures and dealings are a mess.
Same quagmire here in Europe, albeit in different ways and not to such an extent as to jeopardize farmers' existence at a large scale (...yet).
Fine picture. Seems to express the laid low, depressed state of things.

Thank you soozika

the latest press released signals are even more alarming, that Arab Sovereign Wealth is trying to invest in the rice productions of Thailand! ... there's even suggestion of diverting the waters of the Mekong river for this purpose ...

What a disaster that would be !!! Food production should be only to satisfy the need of the people and it should be the top priority of any society to protect food production and distribution in such a way as to prevent capitalist speculation and converting food into a commodity for the capitalists to reap profits while the farmers and the people go hungry because they can't afford the exorbitant prices of food.

Beautiful :)))

belle, belle image .