AYUTTHAYA: The Thai Agriculturalist Association is urging the Royal Irrigation Department to use the excess water from the Chao Phraya River to irrigate areas east and west of the Central Plains, after the Chao Phraya Dam in Chai Nat received a surge of water from Nakhon Sawan and other upstream provinces.
Pramote Charoensilp, president of the association, said instead of focusing its efforts on regulating the depth and water discharge rate in Chai Nat, the RID should make use of existing irrigation channels to divert the runoff from the North to other areas.
In his opinion, the water should instead be diverted to low-lying areas in Lop Buri and Saraburi, which is located east of the Chao Phraya, and to Suphan Buri on the western side of the river.
The water, he said, could be retained for the cultivation of rice and other crops in the next season.
Push for kratom's commercial use
legislation: Justice Minister Somsak Thepsutin has vowed to push for amendment of related laws to allow the commercial use of kratom which has a large market abroad, a discussion was told.
Mr Somsak told an online discussion on the potential of marketing kratom overseas that he planned to spend the remainder of the government's term over the next one and a half years pursuing the legal amendments.
They would help with the commercial development of the plant and turn it into a cash crop, he said.
Kratom has already been reclassified as a legal herb, having been removed from the narcotics list, and people are allowed to consume, grow, possess and sell the fresh leaves. However, doing so on a commercial scale remains prohibited.
Violators are liable to a maximum of two years in prison, a fine of 20,000 baht, or both.
47 illegal border crossers arrested
KANCHANABURI: Forty-seven Myanmar job seekers and their four guides were arrested after they illegally crossed the border into Thailand in Sai Yok district yesterday, Lat Ya Task Force commander Col Yuthana Meecharoen said.
They were found among trees in front of the mosque at Thai Muang village in tambon Bong Ti at about 6am by a combined military-police patrol, he said.
There were 28 men and 19 women, he said, adding they said they were led by the four male guides from Dawei and Bago townships in Myanmar to the Thai border.
They crossed the border into Sai Yok at Thai Muang village and were waiting for transport to Bangkok and Nakhon Pathom, where they expected to get work, he said.