More than four million rai of off-season rice is being grown in excess of water supply, raising fears of a water shortage in the lead up to the height of the summer next month, according to officials.
The Agriculture Ministry said off-season rice is currently being grown on 7.2 million rai of farmland nationwide, or four million rai more than planned. The plan was calculated based on the availability of water in the sources and reservoirs.
The ministry said that to date, the water levels in 34 main reservoirs and dams were adequate, with 21 billion cubic metres of usable water stored in total, which is seven billion cubic metres more than at the same time last year.
However, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) warned that some of the large reservoirs might have to stop feeding water to farmland during this and next month, when the temperature is predicted to surge in many agricultural areas. Water for farmland will be cut first to reserve supply for consumption and keeping the ecology in natural waterways intact, according to the department.
Agriculture Minister Chatchai Sarikulya, meanwhile, said on average, the 34 major dams throughout the country are about 63% full. However, only 44% of such water is usable and can be used until the end of the dry season.
In a bid to add more water into the system, temporary artificial rain-making centres may be opened in Prachuap Khiri Khan's Hua Hin district, Songkhla, Nakhon Ratchasima and Nakhon Sawan, he said.
The DDPM has called for cooperation from rice farmers to avoid planting the off-season rice crop in April, which marks the height of the summer, to ensure the government's water management and allocation goes according to plan.
The DDPM deputy director-general Supakit Phopapapan also said that all parties are being encouraged to use water sparingly so that everyone will have sufficient water for consumption throughout the summer. Drought has hit Chai Nat and Suphan Buri provinces, the country's rice belt, in the Central Plains. The dry spell has also begun to take its toll particularly in Wat Sing and Hankha districts of Chai Nat and Si Prachan district of Suphan Buri.
The water in Khlong Makham Thao-U Thong canal that serves as the main source of water for rice growers in the three districts was running low, according to officials.
A rice farmer, Somkhuan (no surname given), said he decided to limit his off-season rice growing area to only 15 rai, down from 40 rai in past years, because he could not be sure how severe the drought would be this year. Despite constant warnings by officials for farmers to avoid growing off-season rice, he said, it is impossible for him to stop growing completely and he will have to accept it if his rice farm ends up being damaged by the drought.
Suchat Charoensi, director of the royal irrigation office in Chai Nat, said he was afraid that the drought might devastate wide areas of paddy fields in the weeks ahead as the total off-rice growing areas in the province have expanded substantially.
In Si Sa Ket province, Khampun Phokhao, 48, who works as a water trader during the dry season, said the drought arrived early this year and has already driven up demand for her water trucked to the villages. She is selling a 1,500-litre tank of water for 130 baht and customers are queuing up every day, she said.