COMMENTARY
THONGBAI THONGPAO
Like all misfortunes befalling the country, skyrocketing world oil prices, which in theory should affect car users and industries the most, have unleashed the biggest disaster on the poor, who cannot afford cars in the first place. Well-to-do people with cars are not overly concerned with how much oil prices rise - they know they'll be able to afford to fill their tanks.
The poor, on the other hand, have to count on public transportation. When buses, motorcycles, tuk-tuks and taxis raise their fares they have no choice but to pay whatever they are charged.
But the most unfortunate group turns out to be those progressive-thinking farmers who traded their cows and buffaloes for ploughing and harvesting machinery, which, until recently, helped speed and lighten their toils.
Things were not so hard for them when the oil price was not so high. But when pump prices went through the roof, it was they who were hit the hardest. Farmers today are beginning to miss the good old buffaloes and the wooden ploughs they gave up after using them for generations.
No one denies that scientific advancements and inventions are good. They help make life easier for mankind, give unprecedented conveniences and leisure time, and make commuting easier. They help relieve farmers of tedious work and halve the time it takes to do it.
But in many cases modern machinery, instead of liberating men from hard work, does exactly the opposite. When we look around today we find many people are suffering more. Machinery now enslaves people, turning them into servants because of mismanagement. The intention was twisted from the noble purposes of relieving people of hard work to generating capital and profit.
Factory workers work hard alongside the machinery, but still earn so little they hardly make ends meet, prompting them to demand for wage raises almost every year. Their wishes are met only once in a while, while more and more profits pour into the hands of the factory owners.
When this farming machinery was first imported, Thai farmers were so excited about its potential that they gave up their animals and rudimentary ploughs in droves. Those who could not afford it sold their buffaloes to buy it or rented it to do the work for them. Their costs doubled and they had to borrow and pledge their land. Before they knew it, they were overwhelmed with debts they could not repay. The Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC), set up for the sole purpose of lending to farmers, has ended up being a vault for farm land titles nationwide and has failed spectacularly in its mission. Other measures adopted by the government are simply relief efforts, including debt-suspension programmes and debt-restructuring funds.
The runaway oil prices exacerbate the farmers' woes. Crop prices rise only marginally but food prices have doubled. Troubles are spreading everywhere and the government has failed to do anything.
In light of the greater demand, the Education Ministry has a plan to teach students to grow rice. While this is a good idea, the timing is far from ideal. It came a bit too late. It's like attempting to teach people how to put out fires only when the house is burning. However, it's better than doing nothing.
To achieve sustainable development, a plan must be adopted seriously. It does nobody any good to start doing this when food prices have already gone through the roof.
Kom Chad Luek newspaper published recently a beautiful picture of a farmer ploughing his fields the conventional way, with a buffalo and a wooden plough. He must be the happiest man in Thailand today.
Despite the record global rice prices, I feel farmers today are facing a crisis. Everything they need to sustain a living has to be borrowed or bought. No wonder they can never be free from debt.
Some may view the farmers of the old days as ignorant, but at least they relied on themselves in a sustainable way. They had buffaloes to help them plough, and their excrement was used as fertiliser. They could be bred and sold. What's more, good seedlings were kept for the next crop.
An old Thai song now rings in my head: "Riding a buffalo or a car is the same. After all, we're under the same moon." If more farmers had sung that tune more often, maybe they would not be overwhelmed by debts today.
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