Since then, the region has spiked in open burning, Alliya said.Īlliya and other activists say much of the demand for corn is driven by Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand Group, or CP Group, the world’s largest animal feed producer, with an annual production of 27,650 metric tons. Two decades ago, Thailand set up cross-border contract farming programs with farms in Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia under which it imports corn at zero tariffs. It means the rest has to be imported, according to government figures. Thailand needs at least 8 million tons of maize for animal feed but produces about 5 million tons. And the increasing demand for corn can be linked directly to the expansion of the meat industry, said Alliya Moun-Ob, an air pollution campaigner for Greenpeace Thailand. The growing number of so-called hot spots – areas where fires burn or are likely to burn – are linked to deforestation and growing more corn for animal feed. “After the harvest, he collects it from us and takes it to the city.” We get seeds and fertilizers from this person, even if we don’t have any money,” Achoo said. In recent years, they have switched to maize, especially after one of the farmers became a middleman to transport it to animal feed companies. Previously, villagers grew mostly vegetables, cassava, pineapple and edible flowering plants. “Everyone does this, and we have been doing this for years.”īut there are economic forces at work here, too. After you collect the harvest, you burn the rest,” she said. Īchoo, a Thai farmer with corn fields in Doi Sa-Ngo village in Chiang Rai province, sees no problem with burning. A maize field that was burned after the harvest is seen in Doi Sa-Ngo village in Chiang Rai province in northern Thailand, April 5, 2023. Authorities in Bangkok are “hoping it will all go away by itself since they are getting ready for an election,” Rattanasiri said. The Thai government announced a zero-burn policy in March, but it has not been enforced. Between 20, 1.7 million hectares of land was converted from forest to maize cultivation, she said. “This is the worst haze in more than 10 years.”Ĭorn fields are spreading all over the region. “The situation is the culmination of many years of bad agricultural practice,” said Rattanasiri Kittikongnapang, a Greenpeace food and ecology campaigner. Demand for meat is increasing, which means greater demand for corn – and higher prices, which drives the farmers to plant, grow and burn more. Many are in hilly, inaccessible areas and Thailand’s fire-fighting efforts are under-funded.įarmers, meanwhile, have carved growing swathes of farmland from the forest to raise corn, grown mostly for animal feed. The wildfires are fanned by drier-than-usual weather. The two main culprits behind the hazardous pollution – 16 times worse than healthy levels in some areas – are out-of-control wildfires and the burning of ever-wider fields of corn stubble after the February harvest to clear land for planting season in May. Thousands have gone to hospitals with respiratory problems and workers in Chiang Mai, Thailand – ranked among the most polluted cities in the world in recent weeks – have been told to stay indoors and work from home.
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