Thailand to cope with drought, haze

BANGKOK, February 25 (TNA) - The Thai government, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, is preparing measures to cope with drought and haze in the dry season this year. Permanent Secretary for Agriculture and Cooperatives Chavalit Chukajorn told journalists on Wednesday that he is concerned over the drought and haze problems, which normally become worse in every March and April and his ministry will, therefore, seek cooperation from local farmers and plan rainmaking to alleviate the problems. Chavalit, however, quoted the Meteorological Department as reporting that the rainy season should begin late this year, around the third week of June. Chavalit revealed that local dams are now holding about 18 billion cubic meters of water totally, the amount of which should be enough for local consumption and ecological protection until July, but it should not be sufficient to serve local paddy fields. The senior official assessed that about 95,000 rais of second-crop paddy fields in the Chao Phraya River Basin should be, thus, completely damaged, covering 12 Thai provinces, including Nakhon Sawan, Kamphaeng Phet, Chai Nat, Suphan Burii and Ang Thong, while about 38,000 rais of farmlands in the Mekong River Basin should also be damaged. For haze, the senior official foresaw that it should be at the close level of last year and his ministry is trying to cope with it by asking local farmers not to burn their land and also seeking such cooperation from neighboring countries. Meanwhile, Warawut Khantiyanant, Director-General of the ministry's Department of Royal Rainmaking and Agricultural Aviation, reported that air quality in most haze-prone areas in Thailand remain safe for local people. Warawut conceded, nonetheless, that haze is reaching harmful levels for people in Lampang Province in the Thai North and the problem is likely to expand to other adjacent provinces in March-April, when farmers in neighboring Cambodia normally start to burn their farmlands, while those in Myanmar are about to follow suit. Warawut proposed that the government seek cooperation from neighboring countries to urge their farmers to refrain from farmland burning. (TNA)