#  >  > Living And Legal Affairs In Thailand >  >  > Farming & Gardening In Thailand >  >  Adding Drip irrigation to our Tapioca farm

## beazalbob69

Since I have pretty much finished up the Mini-Mart in the Mooban thread I figured I would start this one up. 
We have about 12 rai of land we use mainly for Tapioca that we are adding a drip irrigation system to.
It should almost double crop yield every year. We had the electricity run out and the well dug a couple of years back but haven't really used it for much except growing some fruit trees and veggies. We have Mango's, Papaya, Banana's, Pineapple, Chili's, Basil, Lemongrass, Long bean, Eggplant, and probably more that I haven't seen yet.

If it works out well we will do the same to a couple of other plots that we have.


Here is our well with it's wonderful pumphouse made of available scrap.


Crappy pic of the well and barely visible pump at the bottom. Pump isn't very large 2.5 HP I think. 


Chili's My wife and FIL are growing. FIL had the hut in the background built for storage but it has a small bedroom for sleepovers if you want.


Some more of the veggies and fruit trees that my FIL is growing. You can see our land in the background.


Irrigation installed with newly planted Tapioca trees.


Another shot showing unfinished part in background.


Closeup up PVC pipe and fittings. Each drip hose can be turned off separately if a hose gets damaged or whatever.


Thats one long PVC pipe! Glad it wasn't me that had to lay it all down.


Shot of how long the drip hoses are. They all come off the main PVC pipe in the middle of the plot.


Beautiful land and there's almost always a nice breeze blowing through.


1 of the 2 guys responsible for laying all the pipes and hoses down. Looks like fun don't it? Also the Wife inspecting everything making sure it's done right! lol.


Shot from about 2/3 of the way down the pipe looking back at the hut. Damn that looks like a lot of work.


What the drip system looks like when working. Works good especially when you don't know when the next rainstorm is gonna come by.


Another shot of the system in action. You can almost hear the plants sucking up the water. It hasn't rained here for 2 weeks. If it doesn't rain soon the new crops might die and people will lose a lot of money around here.

Tapioca is an amazing plant. It grows in this shitty red clay and like a weed at that! You just chop up the mature trees when you collect the roots then you stick the chopped up pieces in the dirt and it grows into a whole new plant. You only have to buy new stock if the rain don't come quick enough after you plant and the cuttings die. 

My wife told me the people who grow rice are envious of the people who grow tapioca because it is easier and you make more money. It appears to be the truth.

I will keep this thread updated as the crop progresses and as I learn more about farming in general.

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## nigelandjan

Looking good Bob ,, is that plot about 12 rai ?  

The reason I ask is we have 14 in one area although its not such a regular shape and we have mostly rubber + some bananas along the canal bit of it and some rice , so I have never really been able to figure the size of it ,, looking at yours it looks quite big.

I like to grow veg so looking forward to follow up pics

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## terry57

I'm starting to like you Bob, your threads really show what a farang can do if he picks the right women to associate with.

I'm going to pay you a visit later this year as you are a quality farang and well worthy of associating with. 

Cheers.

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## Prem

Personaly I think it will not work drip irrigation with cassave. Too much costs involved vs returns. Of course it also depends on the price you will get coming years for the cassava.

One thing that will work for sure with cassave is NOT to harvest after 1 season (year) but after 1.5-2 seasons (years). The yield will be +/- 3 x more than 1 year.

Most farmers can not afford to wait more than 1 season.

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## Pragmatic

I have to be honest I've never seen Cassava being grown in the method Beazalbob69 is doing it. If it increases the yield then they'd all be doing it in my book. Only time will tell but from the looks on the expenditure to irrigate over the income for the tubers then I'm in agreement with 'Prem'. Hopefully I'm wrong and I end up kicking my own arse.

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## terry57

> Most farmers can not afford to wait more than 1 season.




Only a guess like but I would guess Bob is not your run of the mill farmer.

More like a farang who has a few bucks to spare and is having a crack at something different.

Hope he pulls it off.

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## beazalbob69

> Personaly I think it will not work drip irrigation with cassave. Too much costs involved vs returns. Of course it also depends on the price you will get coming years for the cassava.
> 
> One thing that will work for sure with cassave is NOT to harvest after 1 season (year) but after 1.5-2 seasons (years). The yield will be +/- 3 x more than 1 year.
> 
> Most farmers can not afford to wait more than 1 season.






> I have to be honest I've never seen Cassava being grown in the method Beazalbob69 is doing it. If it increases the yield then they'd all be doing it in my book. Only time will tell but from the looks on the expenditure to irrigate over the income for the tubers then I'm in agreement with 'Prem'. Hopefully I'm wrong and I end up kicking my own arse.


I understand the concerns. This method is relatively new around here. But I know of mabey 10 different farms that use it with good results. My wife's family have been growing Tapioca forever so to get them to try something new is a huge thing. My FIL suggested it so I would think He knows others in the area that have had success with this method. I don't really know as I am not a farmer but the other farms I have seen using this method around here show a marked improvement in growth compared to just waiting and hoping for rain. I have been shown 6 months growth that equals 1 year with just rain. Some use conventional sprinkler systems but that looks like a huge waste of water to me.

Time will tell.

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## beazalbob69

> Looking good Bob ,, is that plot about 12 rai ?  
> 
> The reason I ask is we have 14 in one area although its not such a regular shape and we have mostly rubber + some bananas along the canal bit of it and some rice , so I have never really been able to figure the size of it ,, looking at yours it looks quite big.
> 
> I like to grow veg so looking forward to follow up pics


I have been told it was about 12 rai. It looked smaller before we did the harvest now it does look huge to me.

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## beazalbob69

> I'm starting to like you Bob, your threads really show what a farang can do if he picks the right women to associate with.
> 
> I'm going to pay you a visit later this year as you are a quality farang and well worthy of associating with. 
> 
> Cheers.


Always up for meeting some new friends Terry. I find that many Expats have interesting stories and takes on life. I would enjoy sharing a beer or three.

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## Pragmatic

> I would guess Bob is not your run of the mill farmer.


Like most farang that take up farming in Thailand. You have to be born into farming in my opinion.  When your arse is against the wall in Thailand you have 2 choices. One open a shop. Second farming. Neither of which I've seen a farang succeed at.

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## nigelandjan

> When your arse is against the wall in Thailand you have 2 choices. One open a shop. Second farming. Neither of which I've seen a farang succeed at.


Or start trolling on here with another nic especially if youve been jailed .

I very much doubt Bob is either desperate or has his arse up against the wall , I would think by the look of it the guy is dipping his toe in and having a go, 

Why people come on here and spout such negativity I will never know ,, surely your life cant be that bloody miserable ?

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## somtamslap

> One open a shop. Second farming. Neither of which I've seen a farang succeed at.


 Pragmatic? Pragmatic about what? Being a knob? Yes, I know.  :Yup: 

Bob's well set up now. 

Excellent thread, mate, once again..

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## Necron99

Bob, what do you estimate the per rai cost of the irrigation?
Looks cheap as chips. The wealthier farmers here do it for corn as well.

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## alwarner

Nice thread.

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## mingmong

Have to agree Bob regards Thai use/waste to much water on there trees, Your system looks good, can control the weed population easy too,

Your Red Clay looks better then my Wife's white clay on 1 off Her farms here in Lampang Hill-side, enjoy

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## somtamslap

> Have to agree Bob regards Thai use/waste to much water on there trees, Your system looks good, can control the weed population easy too,
> 
> Your Red Clay looks better then my Wife's white clay on 1 off Her farms here in Lampang Hill-side, enjoy


 What?

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## beazalbob69

> Bob, what do you estimate the per rai cost of the irrigation?
> Looks cheap as chips. The wealthier farmers here do it for corn as well.


I figure about 1000 baht per rai not including the well and pump which we already had. The hoses only last 3-4 years before the sun and water gets to them. The stuff is pretty cheap at 850 baht per 1000 m.

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## beazalbob69

> Originally Posted by terry57
> 
>  I would guess Bob is not your run of the mill farmer.
> 
> 
> Like most farang that take up farming in Thailand. You have to be born into farming in my opinion.  When your arse is against the wall in Thailand you have 2 choices. One open a shop. Second farming. Neither of which I've seen a farang succeed at.


Seems someone has made some regretful choices in life. When and if my "ass is against a wall" as you say i just go back to the USA and find another job being a supervisor in a CNC Machine Shop. No problems there always have a backup plan.

I am not doing anything here I am on extended vacation. :bananaman: 

Wife is operating a mini-mart and FIL is irrigating his crops. I am just helping out, watching and learning.

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## Necron99

> Originally Posted by Necron99
> 
> 
> Bob, what do you estimate the per rai cost of the irrigation?
> Looks cheap as chips. The wealthier farmers here do it for corn as well.
> 
> 
> I figure about 1000 baht per rai not including the well and pump which we already had. The hoses only last 3-4 years before the sun and water gets to them. The stuff is pretty cheap at 850 baht per 1000 m.




Well that shoots down the whole " too expensive" aspect..

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## koman

I definitely think that pump house should feature on the cover of Country Living magazine..... :Smile: 

Excellent thread.  Very informative and interesting....

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## nigelandjan

> Well that shoots down the whole " too expensive" aspect..


Yes indeed it does ,, my wifes first comment was " Oh we dont do like that , it cost too much money " 

  Which I have to say is a typical angle she and I presume other Thais would come from , I suppose from the point of ,,,we dont do it that way ,, and if we can avoid spending money on something we will .

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## beazalbob69

> Originally Posted by Necron99
> 
> Well that shoots down the whole " too expensive" aspect..
> 
> 
> Yes indeed it does ,, my wifes first comment was " Oh we dont do like that , it cost too much money " 
> 
>   Which I have to say is a typical angle she and I presume other Thais would come from , I suppose from the point of ,,,we dont do it that way ,, and if we can avoid spending money on something we will .


A large part of the cost was drilling the well running electricity out there and buying the pump. All the plastic bit's are pretty cheap and labor cost is also cheap. You could always use a gas generator/pump if you cant get elec out to the land which we might have to do to the other plots we have if we go this route.

Thai's are not really open to new idea's until other Thai's have already tried it. This method is becoming very popular around here and now everyone that has enough money is jumping into the fray. Most still have a "make just enough money to live" attitude and wont spend a little to make more. 

With the way the weather has been acting up around here the last couple years I don't know how the farmers that don't adapt will survive. Rains are becoming more and more unpredictable every year.

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## nigelandjan

> Thai's are not really open to new idea's


Yup for sure mate TIT

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## MakingALife

Good pictures and a nice looking drip system you have there.   

We did drip on some sugar can for a couple of seasons during the dry season.  About 9.5 Rai in size.  (2) x 2 HP in ground deep well pumps that were float operated and fed an tank for the irrigation system (20,000 Liters).  (2) x 3 HP pumps to drive the drip system that also cycled off floats placed in the irrigation tank.   I put in a timer as well so it would 12 hours per evening - so that better soil wetting and less evaporation would be easier to achieve.  

Some comments for your own consideration...

a. These systems burn through a lot of water if used steadily enough to get a good soil soaking.  The system I ran would use 5000 G / hr and between 50,000 to 60,000 GPD.  I found after 3 evenings of back to back use I could cut it back to usage every other night.   Even at that - it works out at 4 days / wk usage to around 200,000 G + per week.  For a 4 month dry season that is 3.6 M gallons.  If you are using your system extensively like this its possible to exhaust your well over the course of a dry season.    Since you are running around 2.5 HP of lifting pump capacity vs the 4 hp I ran..... You will burn through about 60% of the water volume that I found these systems use..   No matter how you slice it - this is a large amount.  

b. Automating it with simple controls and protections - keep you from being disappointed by operator errors that can kill the equipment.    

The yield definitely improves with irrigation.  Most importantly - It will prevent a crop failure, when the season remains too dry for too long.  

Good luck

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## Yasojack

Hope all goes well with your project, farming in Thailand is a experience everyone knows the answers but no one does anything except rice.

I lost money listening to the local experts nowadays i just get on with what i can learn from the web and farming forums such as this.

hope the rain comes soon for you.

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## colinneil

Best of luck mate. Good to see people getting of their arses and trying things.
Forget about the armchair brigade ,with all their negative talk.
Talk is all some people do, when they see someone trying , they spout a lot of sh..e.

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## Pragmatic

> Or start trolling on here with another nic especially if youve been jailed .  I very much doubt Bob is either desperate or has his arse up against the wall , I would think by the look of it the guy is dipping his toe in and having a go,  Why people come on here and spout such negativity I will never know ,, surely your life cant be that bloody miserable ?


I sprouted because of what I see and read. Yes the OP's farm looks impressive but will it work? My opinion is no and because I state what I think I'm ridiculed. Try reading before throwing mud. The truth sometimes hurts.



> It absolutely does not pay. 
> We grow cassava on over 100 rai, learned the hard way ; the only way to make a profit is to keep expenses low.
> 
> By  the time you set up the system , pay for the extra labor of removing it  and reinstalling it at harvest time, you will have eaten your profit on  25 rai for a while.
> 
> I never tired it myself but we are surrounded by other farmers eager to make more money.
> I have watched at least ½ a dozen setups ( such as you  describe ) fold after the one year.
> 
> As MF said, it will probably rain after you finish. !!


Irrigating Cassava? - Farming in Thailand Forum - Thailand Forum

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## Pragmatic

> Originally Posted by beazalbob69
> 
> Thai's are not really open to new idea's
> 
> 
> Yup for sure mate TIT


But it's not a new idea.

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## beazalbob69

> It absolutely does not pay. 
> We grow cassava on over 100 rai, learned the hard way ; the only way to make a profit is to keep expenses low.
> 
> By the time you set up the system , pay for the extra labor of removing it and reinstalling it at harvest time, you will have eaten your profit on 25 rai for a while.
> 
> I never tired it myself but we are surrounded by other farmers eager to make more money.
> I have watched at least ½ a dozen setups ( such as you describe ) fold after the one year.
> 
> As MF said, it will probably rain after you finish. !!


I don't know who posted this as I don't feel like going over to the "other" Thai forum right now but what I get out of this post is:

1. Somehow extra labor to remove and return the system is gonna eat up all of our profits for awhile. 2 guys set up the entire system in 2 days. 300 baht per guy for 2 days = 1200 baht and that was to install the whole thing from scratch. How is moving it out of the way and putting it back later gonna eat up all the profits?

2."I never tired(tried I assume) it myself but we are surrounded by other farmers eager to make more money". So the person who knows without a doubt that it won't work has never even tried it? Yep guy sounds like an expert to me. :Roll Eyes (Sarcastic): 

Just for the record I have no problem with your opinion. We all have them and I like to hear other people's.

Let me just say this again. I am not a farmer and this wasn't my idea. My Wife's entire family on the other hand are farmers (Tapioca specifically) and have been for I dont know how long but it has been a very long time. If her Dad thinks it's a good idea then he has my full support. He knows more about it than I ever shall.

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## beazalbob69

> Originally Posted by nigelandjan
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  Originally Posted by beazalbob69
> ...


To the people around here it is. Things are changing now. The farming here is going to have to evolve just like it has in the west. They will not be able to keep up with demand otherwise.

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## Pragmatic

> If her Dad thinks it's a good idea then he has my full support


Beazalbob69 I've no wish to get in a shit fight with anyone on here. But in the years I've been here I've found Thais are good with ideas and good at spending other peoples money. Has the FIL gone to your expense on his land? If it were viable they'd all be doing it. Make no mistake.
My last post on this. Good luck with your venture. I hope I'm completely wrong and I have to eat my words.

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## beazalbob69

^Fair enough. I hope you are wrong also but if not no biggie learning experience and all that.

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## Mozzbie47

> Best of luck mate. Good to see people getting of their arses and trying things.
> Forget about the armchair brigade ,with all their negative talk.
> Talk is all some people do, when they see someone trying , they spout a lot of sh..e.


I could'nt agree more. 
I, like most others are interested to see how it goes. 
The set up cost would'nt be through the roof, the mainainance will be minimal and it should last for years, really, how can you not win, very interesting.

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## Thetyim

> it should last for years


Yes, I find it hard to believe that the black pipework only lasts 3 years

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## hazz

Depends upon the pipe. not all pipes are made equal. The blue PVC and the black PE 12mm+ coils do tend to last a very long time even in the sun. however thats not what bea's  using drip tape, something like this is cheap, thin walled, fragile, disposable and most important of all full of drippers. three years would be reasonable for this stuff before it gets damaged or the drippers silt up. 

i would expect bea's  will find that his primary cost over 3 years will be the electricity to lift the water out of the well. waters heavy and the laws of physics say you pay for every cm you lift each liter. Its relatively easy to estimate your costs and work out what you need to gain in yield to break even.... something I expect that bea's done.

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## Mozzbie47

> Originally Posted by Mozzbie47
> 
> it should last for years
> 
> 
> Yes, I find it hard to believe that the black pipework only lasts 3 years


I dont agree with that.

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## Mozzbie47

^^^^^ Just looked it up, good quality black poly tube as used for irrigation, drip feeds etc, should last 15 + years.

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## beazalbob69

> ^^^^^ Just looked it up, good quality black poly tube as used for irrigation, drip feeds etc, should last 15 + years.


I give the stuff we bought from DoHome 4 years max. It was cheap. They do have much more expensive stuff available but seeing as how this was a 1st attempt at something figured we would go with the cheaper stuff and see how it works out.

So far so good. FIL is at the farm all day everyday figuring out how to use the system. Had a few problems with the water but the electricity has been messed up here for a couple days brown out I think it's called. Once the kinks are worked out should be OK. FIL is a workaholic and this gives Him something to do so He is happy.

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## Mozzbie47

Agree Bob, use the cheap stuff to see how it goes, I would do that myself.
What is your crop turn around and how long before you should see the results from your plan.

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## Necron99

The negatives on this thread are quite funny.
Where I am there is cane, corn and sunflower planted all year round in rotation.
There are two types of farmers.
One type plants and hopes for rain, they don't weed.
The other type has klong filled dams and irrigates and weeds.
The first type all lost money this year and are borrowing heavily. They ride bikes and live in shacks.
The second type all drive new trucks and have new houses.

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## beazalbob69

> Agree Bob, use the cheap stuff to see how it goes, I would do that myself.
> What is your crop turn around and how long before you should see the results from your plan.


Was yearly before irrigation. Wife tells me adding irrigation should cut that down to 6 months. I say probably more like 8-9 months before ready to harvest but it's just guesswork. Everyone around here that irrigates usually harvests every 6-7 months instead of 1 1/2 years that it takes with just rain.

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## hazz

^I guess the question has to be are the locals doing this 6 month harvest because thats how long it takes to get to the size they normally harvest at or because 6 months optimises the long term yield from the land? if its the former... it might be worth considering growing a patch on to 12 and 18 months to see what the results are.

^^ms hazz has two families of relatives who gave up bkk for farming and they have both been quite successful. Ive visited them and what strikes me is that they see farming as a business rather than a way of life and this seems to be what differentiates them from many of their neighbours.... i suspect its is also wat differntiates between the types of farm that you describe.

Out of curiosity how serious an issue is salting up. I know is California and Israel they have serious issues with the minerals that come up with well water, saying in the soil and making it sour. Do you get enough rain in the wet season to wash the soil of these minerals?

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## beazalbob69

> ^I guess the question has to be are the locals doing this 6 month harvest because thats how long it takes to get to the size they normally harvest at or because 6 months optimises the long term yield from the land? if its the former... it might be worth considering growing a patch on to 12 and 18 months to see what the results are.
> 
> ^^ms hazz has two families of relatives who gave up bkk for farming and they have both been quite successful. Ive visited them and what strikes me is that they see farming as a business rather than a way of life and this seems to be what differentiates them from many of their neighbours.... i suspect its is also wat differntiates between the types of farm that you describe.
> 
> Out of curiosity how serious an issue is salting up. I know is California and Israel they have serious issues with the minerals that come up with well water, saying in the soil and making it sour. Do you get enough rain in the wet season to wash the soil of these minerals?


From what I understand if you leave it too long the root part will get larger but also hold more water. When we harvest and bring to the starch factory for processing they sample the crop and check water % more water = lower price. I think knowing when to harvest just comes from experience. You want it big and dense with low water %.

As for land yields the land is pretty much crap nowadays from overfarming and never changing what crop was grown. Every growing season they have to lay down chicken shit to add nitrogen to the soil. Tapioca is just about the only crop that does well around here without serious soil enrichment. 6 months should just be optimum crop growth.

Not sure about salting as this is the 1st well that the family has had. I hope it will not be a problem. We do get monsoons in the wet season and the soil around here takes as much water as it can get. It can pour down all night and the next afternoon you would never know it.

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## Troy

In ideal conditions, Cassava can be harvested after 8 months rather than 6. The main reason for having to leave for 12-18 months is because of the non-ideal drought conditions it is grown in Isaan. I can see good reasons for irrigation, especially during the initial growing stages but make sure you weed as well. 

Not sure where you are in Thailand and I apologise if you mentioned it, but I skipped through some of the negative thoughts. It is grown because it is tolerant of drought (and salt) conditions and is reasonably maintenance free once established. However, irrigation and weeding will improve the harvest. It will also mean that you can harvest and replant without worrying about when the rain will come and so you can concentrate on the crop and not the weather.

The irrigation of the fields also means that you change crop relatively easily. You can do one half back to back and grow something else in the other half...or you can intercrop. I am not sure of the best rotation or intercrop but I'm sure there are sites that can provide that info.

Best of luck and hope you let us all know how you get along.

_________________
Edit:
A quick google shows that Maize is good for intercropping but you are better off doing a thorough check.

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## repesteeltje

> Originally Posted by Necron99
> 
> 
> Bob, what do you estimate the per rai cost of the irrigation?
> Looks cheap as chips. The wealthier farmers here do it for corn as well.
> 
> 
> I figure about 1000 baht per rai not including the well and pump which we already had. The hoses only last 3-4 years before the sun and water gets to them. The stuff is pretty cheap at 850 baht per 1000 m.


Hello Bob,

Do you know the brand of the equipment that you installed. I have the borewell and waterpump. I'm developing an organic farm close to Chiang Mai with mostly fruit trees. The whole project is more a learning exercise than an economic endeavor but I would like to see some return someday (not so much profit as less running costs). Good quality drip would help me a lot.

Thanks

R'tje

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## sranchito

> Originally Posted by Necron99
> 
> Well that shoots down the whole " too expensive" aspect..
> 
> 
> Yes indeed it does ,, my wifes first comment was " Oh we dont do like that , it cost too much money " 
> 
>   Which I have to say is a typical angle she and I presume other Thais would come from , I suppose from the point of ,,,we dont do it that way ,, and if we can avoid spending money on something we will .


Yep, my SIL has said that in the past.  She says, easy of you got big money.  I say, if you don't put in the fertilizer, it ain't gonna grow.

Met a woman down by the BIL's place.  We spoke and she agreed in a lot of concepts for increasing tonnage per rai.  but, she has a 10 rai place and improvements are harder to justify.

According to her, the department of ag has project to help farmers but, you have to have a certain amount of rai to qualify for the program.  At least she has tried the different angles and is willing to discuss them.  This is all in contrast to the SIL's no can do stance.

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## hazz

^^Super Products Co.,Ltd.- Irrigation system seem good

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## MakingALife

> ^^Super Products Co.,Ltd.- Irrigation system seem good


Super products makes good items at fair prices.   I will say however that the "automatic line drains" they recommend for use at the end of drip tube runs - which allow fast tube emptying, to prevent a reverse siphon effect drawing dirt into the drip points.   Those drains are problematic and worthless on large branch runs, because they take a certain level of back pressure to close and shut them off.  

If you have a branch line (say 1.5 inch PVC - with 40 drip tube runs off it) It is difficult to get these items to seal off and pressurize all the drip tubing runs properly.   Too many of these items remained open and the system never pressurizes properly.    Just imagine a system with 8 branch runs of 1 1/2 PVC off a larger header line.   These automatic quick drain components are not manageable.   

As good luck would have it for my system -  The stock level was low on this item and I could only locate 80 pieces prior to running it.   So I set up the rest of the drip tubes by simple fittings and caps.   When i first operated the system it was obvious that this many (perhaps 80) were never going to close off and allow for good system pressurization .  So I replaced them with caps, and the issue was solved.   

There was no tape performance deterioration over several years of dry seasonal usage of this tape.   No evidence of fouling or plugging of the dippers - even without these draining devices they recommend.   

If one has land that is significantly sloped and pitched in two directions, getting a good drip system design that waters everything properly and uniformly for a 10 Rai plot - takes some design work.  If your lot is all basically nearly flat it is a much easier design.  Superproducts has some guidance available.

 I found so good design resource put out there by a sprinkler design company based in California, which covers all of the sizing and flow rate issues very well including dealing with sizing of systems for slopes  and grades.   

I steered clear of the drip tape adapters that had the small control valves on each tube run.   It would require a lot of balancing work and adjustment ,  to regulate properly for a slope and with hundreds of tube runs.  The time spent do size branch lines and layout is only done once, and it saves having to build a simple system and tune a lot of flow control adapters.

Filtration of the water is important to keep the tape working well.  Those filtration items are cheap enough and many of the Y-type strainers super products sells are easy blow down and maintain quickly.  They are worth the time an trouble to add to your system based on your flow rate.   A good working system takes some effort to design for your area, your land slope, and watering rate (a function of your tubing selected).   If you get aspects wrong - the system will not perform as desired.

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## beazalbob69

Thanks MAL lots of good info there! FIL is still working out the kinks today. Had pump problems one wasn't enough so we had to have the old pump that had broken rebuilt and plumbed into the system. I think they got it squared away now. Our land is flat and they did just cap the ends of the drip lines. It seemed to spread the water evenly enough. We will still probably have some more kinks to work out over the next few weeks but I am hopeful it will work out.

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## Makmak456

excellent imformative post
good luck
Mark

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## beazalbob69

Snapped some more pics yesterday when I went to check the progress of the pump situation.



Elegant drip tape capping solution. Hey it works!



Already sprouting new growth.



Another shot looking towards the hut.



So peaceful out here. 



Farm right next to ours also has drip irrigation. Looks to be doing well only planted about 3 weeks ago.



Side by side. It sucks if you have the land inside because you have to wait for the farms in front to harvest 1st before you can get to yours.



Another farm close to ours that uses a different style of irrigation. Looks to waste a lot more water due to evaporation to me and the wife agrees.

Still waiting on the 2nd pump to be rebuilt. 1 pump wasn't enough to continually lift the water out of the well. 2 should be alright we will see when they get it installed.

----------


## Troy

I was expecting to see the cassava grown on ridges in a similar way to potatoes. What are you doing about drainage for the wet season...they hate wet feet.

----------


## beazalbob69

> I was expecting to see the cassava grown on ridges in a similar way to potatoes. What are you doing about drainage for the wet season...they hate wet feet.


As far as I know the locals have never had a problem with too much water and flooding around here. This is how they have been doing it for generations. I have never seen a flooding problem here only in Korat city once in 100 years a few years back. Natural drainage mabey? We are on a plateau here after all.

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## Troy

The idea of growing cassava in a ridge-and-furrow ploughed field was for better drainage during wet periods rather than flooding. However, it seems that Khorat does not get the heavy rain in May and August that is seen further NE. All the same, you may get better protection from an exceptional early rain (when the plants are not well established) especially when growing outside the "normal" season. That is, it would allow you to harvest later without worrying about getting the next crop in and established before heavy rains.

----------


## Thetyim

^
Go on Bob, buy a tractor
You know you want one  :Smile:

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## beazalbob69

^ Mentioned a time or three already. Flat out refused. Not really a good investment as far as I can see.

I know the pics don't show it but there are furrows just not very deep and running perpendicular to the drip lines. I have seen it done both ways around here. Some have deep furrows and some have almost no furrows at all. 

When they add the chicken crap to the soil before planting they use a tractor? to dig the furrows as well as mix the crap with the soil.

----------


## terp80

It's nice to see someone using good ol' common sense. Beautiful photos. Hope everything works for the best!  :Smile:

----------


## dutara

Thanks beazalbob69 for telling about this and the pictures of it.  An aerial photo showing the irrigation layout would be cool.  Threads like this, and the one about bees, for example, are what distinguishes TeakDoor, makes it one of the most interesting expat boards.

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## usual suspect

Bob..your field's looking tidy there, your staff have laid it all out neat, I wish you well with this project.
This form of irrigation is catching-on all around the country now..acres+acres of sugar around Hua hin is watered this way now..(but I suspect it is the larger/wealthier farmers doing this).

----------


## Khonwan

Hi guys. Im Khonwan from TV (not yet banned but seriously pissed off with them). Been growing cassava for around 15 years and have a pinned topic on growing cassava in Thailand on that forum; I farm 170 rai of the crop. This is my first post in Teak Door, having just signed up today.

  I too would certainly irrigate my cassava if only I could  so stick with it. Unfortunately, I have insufficient water. Ive sunk 3 deep bore-wells (45m, 70m, and 90m) at different locations but only receive a trickle of water. My problem is granite; more to the point, granite with insufficient cracks to allow water seepage/collection.

  How much water does your well yield, Bob?

  Rgds
  Khonwan

----------


## hazz

^Iv'e always been if it don't work thump it chap. so to me the obvious thing to do with a granite well that wont produce water would be to arrange a gentle thump with some high explosives.


To my supprise it apparently really can work:



> Methods for getting enough water from a granite well
> Most granite bedrock contains few cracks at depths normally reached by wells. That's why it's often difficult to get enough water from a granite well. The few water-bearing cracks present in granite usually occur in the first 200 feet.
> If your driller has constructed a granite well that looks like it's not going to produce water, the driller may ask to stop drilling and try another spot.
> The driller may also recommend blasting the well with dynamite to open water-bearing rock fractures. Blasting for this purpose may only be done by a person licensed to blast wells and under the supervision of a licensed driller.
> A third, more successful and less dangerous method is hydrofracturing, in which large volumes of water are injected into a drillhole under thousands of pounds of pressure to open water-bearing cracks in bedrock.
> If the only water available in the bedrock lies shallower than 40 feet, and the contractor drilled to at least 150 feet trying to obtain water, the driller, with your permission, may request a variance from the DNR to set less than 40 feet of casing. You or the well driller may call the nearest DNR office to request a variance. Sometimes it's possible to get approval right away. The DNR will then send a follow-up letter of approval. In other cases, the DNR may place special conditions on variance approvals, so the process may take a little longer.


so there you are, you need to find an army chap with some explosives to blow up the bottom of your well, partly because it might work... but mainly because blowing things up is fun and cool

BTW welcome to TD

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## Khonwan

Thanks Hazz. Yes, I'm aware of this technique and would be interested in trying it if I found the right person. So if anyone knows of an individual with such experience, I'd be delighted to talk with them.

Rgds
Khonwan

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## beazalbob69

> ^Iv'e always been if it don't work thump it chap. so to me the obvious thing to do with a granite well that wont produce water would be to arrange a gentle thump with some high explosives.
> 
> 
> To my supprise it apparently really can work:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Methods for getting enough water from a granite well
> ...


That does sound like fun Hazz. I almost want to try it even if my well produces enough water.

So far the well has been keeping up with demand but we dont know how well (no pun intended)it will hold up in the long run as it's not a proven setup yet.

And also welcome to the board Khonwan! You will like it lots of good info here and a bunch of crazies. Hard to get yourself banned here.

----------


## good2bhappy

been thinking about it for a while
will follow this thread with interest
good luck
my yield was crap this year

----------


## Khonwan

G2BH, all yields throughout my area were down this season firstly because of the slow rains, then also due to continuous rain that lasted 3-4 days.

  Still havent been banned, Bob, but have resigned. I changed my profile title to Resigned. Moved next door in reference to this site since their system automatically censors Teak Door.

  Rgds
Khonwan

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## InKorat

Hi Bob,

 Great pictures. I would be very interested in the bottom line result you achieve with the irrigation. We did try this ourselves (3 years ago) on a scale similar to what you are doing and it did improves the yield, but I was worried that the volume of water in our well was not really adequate and  I turned it off. No data.

  Since then we have concentrated more on retaining moisture and nutrient in the soil and our current 17 months yield has now increased to 15 tons/rai.  

 We recently harvested 10 rai plot next to our house that was planted 11 months ago that yielded 7 ton/rai, so that we can plant a new (higher yielding ?) cassava that we hope to get 20 tons/rai in 17 - 18 months. Maybe we are dreaming, with or without irrigation, but we will play around and see what happens.

 Our starch yield has always been 29 - 32%, which is good and much better than any of our neighbors. 

 New farmers should always focus on starch content as much as weight, each percent above or below the 25% standard makes a real big difference to the bottom line.

 Again thanks for all the great pictures and information.

----------


## Khonwan

Excellent yields, InKorat; much better than mine (though I too have now planted a more promising variety).

  So how are you retaining moisture? Mulching (with what, and at what rate?) or sheeting (how expensive?)?

  Do you monitor starch yields yourself at the farm, or rely on the purchasers measurement?

  Rgds
  Khonwan

----------


## InKorat

> Excellent yields, InKorat; much better than mine (though I too have now planted a more promising variety).
> 
>   So how are you retaining moisture? Mulching (with what, and at what rate?) or sheeting (how expensive?)?
> 
>   Do you monitor starch yields yourself at the farm, or rely on the purchasers measurement?
> 
>   Rgds
>   Khonwan



Hi Khonwan,

Every year my wife adds mulch from leaves, grass and trimming. Most of this comes from our own garden areas. We really have not kept records of the cost of the mulch or the rate of application, since is comes from our lawns and gardens and is placed into compost piles and then is disposed of in the fields. We would need to do this even if we did not farm the land, since we have way to big of a garden and too many trees. 

 We are experimenting with fertilizers with high organic matter contents and I think this will help. I am also considering experimenting with other moister/nutrient holding additives to see the results and see if they are cost effective.

 We have never monitored our own starch content, but do avoid the Cassava Buyers who we know play games with the percentage or deduct 10% for dirt or other foreign matter. 

 This idea started as a hobby for my wife, but with a lot of hard work on her part and some research and guidance from me, she is now making a decent return. She now only has 100 rai under cultivation, but will expand, if things go according to our plan.  A little rain would really help.

----------


## Rainfall

Don't know if it has been suggested yet, but you could reduce the water use substantially with a subsurface drip irrigation. I'm sure you know, it's been around for many years.

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## poorfalang

hang on a second is tapioca what we call cassava?

----------


## pseudolus

Thanks for the thread. I have been in dispute with my  missus for a while now about what this crop is. She kept saying it was a potato, then clarified, a type of potato, well, like a potato but not a potato, to which I said "piss off, it's a bloody stick not a potato". Anyway, now we know. Can you make pasta from tapioca flour?

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## poorfalang

^you can indeed, but get on line and search for a brazilian/portuguese recepi for 
(massa de mandioca) use translation from google, 
let us know how it goes

----------


## poorfalang

on the respect of irrigating cassava,
waste of money and time,
when is time to harvest are gonna go around and pick all the tubes up and then lay them down again,
in issan people never give them water and are getting decent harvest, 

how much did you spend in it?
how many tons do you think you get from 12 rai?
its not the irrigation its the planting tecnic.

just a thought no offence

----------


## diverken

:Smile: Great thread guys very interesting .we will be watching for the outcome  .thanks

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## beazalbob69

Just noticed a new reply to this thread.

I have some new pics to upload showing the growth so far. The plants are growing very fast and well. Look to be about double the size of non-irrigated and very healthy looking. Already started producing root bulbs and ready for fertilizer. Plants are just about as tall as me (which is not very tall lol only 5' 5").

So far looks like it will pay off should get 2 harvests every year instead of 1.

----------


## beazalbob69

> on the respect of irrigating cassava,
> waste of money and time,
> when is time to harvest are gonna go around and pick all the tubes up and then lay them down again,
> in issan people never give them water and are getting decent harvest, 
> 
> how much did you spend in it?
> how many tons do you think you get from 12 rai?
> its not the irrigation its the planting tecnic.
> 
> just a thought no offence


I don't think it is a waste of time seeing as how my family have all the time in the world and this is their lively hood. Waste of money? Don't know yet we will see.

The problem is the Korat area is hit or miss with rainfall. This year has been drier than normal I think and a lot of the farmers that don't use irrigation have suffered crop die off and had to replant. We had water when there was no rain and our plants are months ahead of the non-irrigated farms now.

I don't have exact #'s for the prices on hand but less than 10,000 baht all together to set it up. Electricity has been about 800 baht a month so far but now were in the rainy season so it should be lower. I don't know the yield yet but should be ready to harvest in a few more months and I will have all the figures then.

This is more or less an experiment to see if it is worth it. We have about 40-50 rai spread around and if it proves profitable we will probably irrigate other plots in the future and use the profits to purchase more land.

----------


## beazalbob69

Here are some more pics showing the growth from the beginning of April to the end of June.

These were taken at the end of April about 3 weeks after planting.










And these were taken on June 19 2013.






Here is a pic of the newish pump house that replaced the termite eaten old one from the 1st set of pics.


So far so good.

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## Pragmatic

I'm still sceptical that irrigation is the way forward and I look forward to *your* profit calculations when harvested. Farang near me has bought 20+ Rai in the last 3 years to grow Cassava. He's now gave up and just rents out the land




> the people who make money on cassava are the local processing plants you see dotted around your village. And the people in Bangkok who buy it from local processors who then either sell it to Europe for animal feed, etc or the Thais turn cassava into many other products and sell those products in Thailand and abroad. 
> 
> If the cassava gets too wet when it is being grown (in rice paddies, no less!), then kiss *all* your investment goodbye, not just the tens of thousands of baht you will be shelling out to your family for all the farming necessities.
> 
> I feel confident to say you will be losing money soon.


 https://teakdoor.com/farming-and-gard...-thailand.html

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## pseudolus

> I'm still sceptical that irrigation is the way forward and I look forward to your profit calculations when harvested. Farang near me has bought 20+ Rai in the last 3 years to grow Cassava. He's now gave up and just rents out the land


There is no profit in the stuff then? 

If he gets two crops in a year where as non watered farmers, only one, then he is ahead, no? Also they might lose out on the first year, with all the out lay in cost, however, I doubt this family are only growing it for one year, and will spread the cost over 4 yrs of crops, which if they double in size and twice as fast to harvest time, means they are significantly ahead. 

Bob - I love it. Sore back putting all that shit in though. Asparagus next.

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## piwanoi

BB 69 there,s some Thai's doing just the same as you in regards to Irrigation not far from me  ,Jan my wife informs me the guy who's doing it has attended some agricultural school in Bangers , so it must be a good idea ,Jans Sister had about 5 rai of Cassava and never did nothing apart from a little bit of fertilizer ,during the dry season some died and when they finally lifted it, the yield was pitiful ,yet another guy who lives near a klong  not far away who pumped water on it every week looked to me to have treble what Jans sister had on roughly the same amount of land  :Smile:

----------


## beazalbob69

> BB 69 there,s some Thai's doing just the same as you in regards to Irrigation not far from me  ,Jan my wife informs me the guy who's doing it has attended some agricultural school in Bangers , so it must be a good idea ,Jans Sister had about 5 rai of Cassava and never did nothing apart from a little bit of fertilizer ,during the dry season some died and when they finally lifted it, the yield was pitiful ,yet another guy who lives near a klong  not far away who pumped water on it every week looked to me to have treble what Jans sister had on roughly the same amount of land


Thanks for the info. Lots of farmers are doing it around here but mostly just the more wealthy farmers. Sadly I think the poorer farmers that cant afford irrigation are going to be left behind where I live. 

Like I said before this wasn't my idea it was my wife's family's idea. They have been growing cassava for literally 100's of years. I trust they know how to grow it and what makes it grow better and when to add water, fertilizer, etc and also when to harvest it. If it doesn't work out no biggie I have not invested that much into it but I think it will work out.

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## piwanoi

Never grown Cassava myself BB 69 but my Mango tree is the envy of the Village ,there,s was finished over a Month ago and yet mine is still heavy with fruit and Jan has took hundreds off it already , I started in the new year by digging a small pit about a foot deep all round the tree and then fed it with the green crystals (Similar to growmore)  which you mix with water twice a week ,the results are there for all to see . :Smile:

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## beazalbob69

^Nice I love Thai Mango's. We have a big tree in the front yard but it doesn't produce too much. Will have to look into it.

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## piwanoi

> ^Nice I love Thai Mango's. We have a big tree in the front yard but it doesn't produce too much. Will have to look into it.


 As the old adage goes BB don't expect to get a lot out if you are not prepared to put something in , maybe that goes for a lot of things including our lives in general eh :Smile:

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## Khonwan

I love reading the pessimism and scepticism. Despite poor prices this year, my wife and I still made a profit of more than one million baht (160 rai harvested). And Im very confident that wed have increased our profit if we could have irrigated our crops.

  15 years, or so, experience of growing cassava in Thailand  never made a loss!

  Rgds
  Khonwan

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## piwanoi

> I love reading the pessimism and scepticism. Despite poor prices this year, my wife and I still made a profit of more than one million baht (160 rai harvested). And Im very confident that wed have increased our profit if we could have irrigated our crops.
> 
>   15 years, or so, experience of growing cassava in Thailand  never made a loss!
> 
>   Rgds
>   Khonwan


 Nice to read you are doing OK khonwan, just a suggestion , why not try an experiment with say half a rai under Irrigation ,and then you can estimate the difference good ,bad or indifferent  :Smile:

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## Pragmatic

> 15 years, or so, experience of growing cassava in Thailand – never made a loss!


So initially, after buying your 200 Rai you started making a profit from day one. Is that correct? May be okay if you were given the land free.
You currently make 6,250 Baht per Rai profit. Land is currently, on average,100-150,000 Baht per Rai. If starting today I'd say a profit wouldn't be seen for the next 16-20 years.
Khonman good on you for making a success of farming, each to their own, but I always look at it this way. If money is to be made from farming then why are people selling land?

----------


## poorfalang

> So initially, after buying your 200 Rai you started making a profit from day one. Is that correct? May be okay if you were given the land free.
> You currently make 6,250 Baht per Rai profit. Land is currently, on average,100-150,000 Baht per Rai. If starting today I'd say a profit wouldn't be seen for the next 16-20 years.
> Khonman good on you for making a success of farming, each to their own, but I always look at it this way. If money is to be made from farming then why are people selling land?


because thai people dont want to farmers no more, they want office clean work, shops, and even factory work so they sell to buy nice cars to drive to their factory jobs or to open a business, or even to fund the children education, some others they sell to pay debt.
if you cant manage the land you wont make a profit, 
there are people making 100.000 form one rai per year, chicken eggs, fish pigs ducks and fruit. 
be smart look for buyers and you can make a profit.

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## pseudolus

> Land is currently, on average,100-150,000 Baht per Rai.


Not in Nakhon Sawan it's not. 

Regardless of this, your argument doesn't make business sense. The cost of the land is not part of this equation.

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## Necron99

> Originally Posted by Khonwan
> 
> 15 years, or so, experience of growing cassava in Thailand  never made a loss!
> 
> 
> So initially, after buying your 200 Rai you started making a profit from day one. Is that correct? May be okay if you were given the land free.
> You currently make 6,250 Baht per Rai profit. Land is currently, on average,100-150,000 Baht per Rai. If starting today I'd say a profit wouldn't be seen for the next 16-20 years.
> Khonman good on you for making a success of farming, each to their own, but I always look at it this way. If money is to be made from farming then why are people selling land?




The land is a capital investment in its own right and long term rarely fails to make a healthy gain.
It's is not part of your operation P/L unless you are going to write it off at the end, or are leasing it.

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## piwanoi

I was not aware that Khonwan said he had bought the land , maybe its family land and he's just sort of "fit in", I know of 2 Norwegians here who did this very same thing by Marrying the only Daughter who has no Brothers ,not with Cassava but with Rubber ,it would appear that they are both doing quite nicely out of the deal!

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## Khonwan

If you Google me, you’ll find a thousand or more posts by me on farming in Thailand written over a 7 year period from 2006 on ThaiVisa, from which I have resigned; I’m the author of the pinned thread there, titled “Growing Cassava in Thailand”.

  Piwanoi, as mentioned earlier in the thread, I have insufficient water for irrigation, despite drilling 3 boreholes down as deep as 90 metres, non-fractured granite being the problem. I could certainly experiment with one rai, or so, but can’t be bothered since I’ll never be able to benefit from the results. There is already a fair amount of published research available on the web that demonstrates increased yields; costs are easily calculated for factoring into profit & loss calculations.

  Pragmatic, I did not initially buy 200 rai. In fact, to have done so without access to water would have been gross stupidity. I purchased (wife’s name, of course) 10 rai of land for 4, 450 baht per rai 17 years ago and stuck 4 cows on it since it was untitled land that had to be used for agriculture. I immediately built a large house on it, which was the purpose of my purchase. Around 2 years later, purely to preserve my view of the uninhabited landscape, I bought another 40 rai. That’s how I got into farming. I purchased more cattle then more land, in 10-30 rai parcels. I paid market rates of 5,000 bt/rai for non-contiguous land (that I would crop) and 7,500 bt/rai for contiguous land (that I would pasture). Offering Bt75,000 for 10 rai that I really wanted would allow a neighbouring farmer to buy 15 rai elsewhere. I purchased the last parcel of that 200 rai many years ago, before land values started to spiral. It was all Bor Tor 5 though is now mostly Sor Por Kor (there is only one chanote title in my district and that has been owned by a member of parliament for some decades). I have, just this year, acquired another 10 rai (voluntary settlement of a debt to me) @26,000 bt/rai (deeply discounted), this time Sor Por Kor land, taking our holdings to 210 rai. My house, guest house, 3 labourer-houses, barn, ponds, roads, tracks, fencing, etc., leaves around 170 rai of land for cropping (since I no longer have livestock).  Land in my immediate area can currently fetch up to 45,000 bt/rai (though I received an indirect offer of 20 million for my house and 200 rai last year, which I rejected).

  I would not encourage farmers to buy land at the hyper-inflated costs of today – the pay-back period is too long, in my opinion – though I have poor Thai friends who are making very long term investments for their families. Better to rent.

  Why are people selling? Poorfalang is spot on with his reply. In my experience, most land is sold to creditors or to others in order to use the cash to settle debts. Why do farmers incur such debts if farming is so good? Most have insufficient land for major crops and have a lack of capital and/or marketing skills to make better use of their small holdings. More than a few lose everything through alcohol and gambling (as did my own great-grandfather who lost his farm in Ireland before immigrating to Glasgow).

  Profit from farming from day one? No, no, no. I tried different forms of farming, breaking even or losing money, before deciding on how best to use my land. I’ve always made money on cassava so that’s what I stick to now (along with occasional maize and mungbean crop rotations). My home, farm, and initial years were all funded by my business earnings in Bangkok (which I gave up 9 years ago).

  Rgds
  Khonwan

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## ootai

Khonwan welcome to this forum, I have read all your stuff on TV about growing cassava and thank you very much for all the time and effort that must have taken. It appears that we are having a bit of a migration from the TV farming section to over here.
Just a couple of questions for you.
1. 
Do you believe that providing the water when needed will increase the yield. The reason i ask is that a couple of years ago we grew some and we planted in November which as you know is the dry season, so if it didn't rain for a couple of weeks I used a pump and sprinklers to water the cassava. In the end I don't know whether the yield was improved or not as it was our first go at the stuff. What I do know is that the missus was very happy that she got top price for hers as it had a higher (than others in the area) starch content. So if you get more wieght and more starch and provided the buyers pays higher for the extra starch then you would or could end up with a double effect.
2. 
Do you still follow your recommendation of 18 month cropping. I am trying to convince my missus of the benefits but she doesn't want to hear. If you get 25% more by leaving it for free then that to me is a free crop in the second year as you don't have 2 lots of costs.

She keeps very good records (we had a business in Aussie) and she informed me recently that this year she made about B4000 profit from the 15 rai she plants. I told her she needs to forget the Thai way and stop buying drinks and food (she records every baht spent) for the workers whenever she gets them in for planting, weeding, harvesting etc. as that is her profit she is spending on them. I should point out that she does none of the work herself everything is done by paid labour and hired equipment. So if she can make a profit (however small) then others should be able to as well, especially if they do most of the work themselves.

I can't wait until I stop work one day and can play in the dirt myself, I am sure there will be no drinks for me just more encouragement to work harder.

----------


## Khonwan

Hi Ootai, thanks for your comments. ThaiVisa needs real competition if its admin and mods are to develop any respect for its members so Im hoping that many more resign and join here.

  I firmly believe that irrigation whether by rainfall or artificially in the first 3 months after planting significantly increases yields.

  The 2-year cycle (18 months crop) worked for me until recently. I have just gone back to 1-yr cycles. The weather systems appear to be changing in most countries  no less true here. The rains are now coming to my neck of the woods much later than usual and are not the 1-hour monsoon downpours followed by hot sunshine that I depended on; we now have Scottish rain: constant non-stop moderate rainfall for 3-4 days at a time. The delay in rain during the development of the tuber cries out for irrigation whilst the very wet conditions when the tubers have matured cause tuber rot. Most of my last 18-mth harvest resulted in yields equal to that of my 11-mth harvest, resulting in a wasted year. 

  Most of our land has now been planted with cassava but we are trying a new strategy this year with a fair bit. We will be planting maize on 1st July (weather permitting) and harvesting it on 19th October; will then immediately plough in the residue, then plant cassava around 30th October to be harvested June 2014. We suspect that the combined profit may be more than the 6,899 bt/rai we averaged this year  well see.

  I presume you mean that your wife made Bt4,000 per rai from your 15 rai.  We are still paying a day-labour rate of Bt200 for an 8-hour day (the norm for my area) plus refreshments of around Bt15; Bt200 per 200 litres contract spraying; Bt270 per tonne contract harvesting (which includes transportation of the tubers).

  Im no longer hands on  my wife manages it all now. She hires labour but gets her hands dirty along with them.

  Rgds
  Khonwan

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## beazalbob69

Thanks Khonwan for your valuable input on this thread and welcome to the Forum! My in-laws were just about the only ones out of my Wife's family that held onto the family land. Most sold it off to pay debt's or buy something stupid like a TV or motorbike. That had allowed my in-laws to have a much better life, house, truck, tractor, ect way before I ever entered the picture.

I pretty much leave the farming to the farmers. They did pretty well for themselves even buying more land when they had the funds rather than selling it for a quick profit. 

I can only hope that I can reach the level of profits that you have someday. I agree there is money to be made if you are smart about it.

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## ootai

Khonwan
Unfortunately the profit was total not per rai. I checked with her last night when I phoned and she said it was actually B7000 total profit so roughly B500/rai.
The main reason was that it was a really dry year and by the time it was harvested the plants all looked dead so I expect that they wouldn't of had anything avaiable to grow the tubers they would have just been trying to survive.
So in that case I can see the benfit of irrigation and drippers would be more efficient use of water than sprinklers.
She said that she pays ?B/rai for the ploughing and ridging, ?B/rai for planting and pays by the tonne for harvesting. The weeding and fertilising she pays wages for. The low profit is directly a consequence of the low yield this year. She reckons she is making a better profit on rice so not all the pledging money ended up in the millers hands she must have got some. Most of the sugar cane she had growing is wilting or was burnt by some prick letting a fire get away from them.
The end result she has made little or no money (profit from cassava and rice offset by losses on sugar cane) but she has been kept occupied which probably saves money in the end as she is not off somewhere shopping.

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## Khonwan

Ootai, and anyone else: I wouldn’t suggest making any investment in an irrigation system before attaining yields of at least 3t/r. Plant March to June and you should be fine. A profit of any less than Bt2,000/rai is a loss to me since I can easily rent out my land for 2k per year. 

  I too would favour drippers over sprinklers should you eventually put in an irrigation system.

  Your “?B/rai” leaves me guessing you were going to come back and complete a draft version (I usually draft my posts) but forgot before posting  :Smile: 


  Beazalbob69, thanks for comments.

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## beazalbob69

Well I think it's time for an update! Last pics that I posted were from June. We are in the process of harvesting today. 

Here are some pics of the farm from the beginning of August.






And this one is from the end of August.


These are from the beginning of November. Notice the change in the plant. Supposed to mean it's ready to harvest.



















And these are from today November 25th 2013.





















7 months from planting until harvest. Not bad.

Comparison Shots.

End of April.


Middle of June.


November 12th.


November 25th.



Curious to see what we get for tonnage and starch percentage. When I get the numbers I will post the results.

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## Roobarb

Great stuff BeazalBob.  Thanks for your update.

I appreciate you need to wait for the final numbers to come in to work out the actual yield; but what does the family reckon, gut feelings here on the basis that they know the game, has irrigation been worthwhile?

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## beazalbob69

I have heard it looks a little bit small but it has only been 7 months. For 7 months it looks big. I will know soon enough.

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## beazalbob69

So it looks like we got about 41000 KG out of about 8 1/2 rai of land. Comes out to 4823 KG per rai. After we pay for the workers, truck, and more fertilizer we should get about 68000 baht. Works out to almost 10000 baht per month.

We can get this every 7 months.

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## beazalbob69

> Great stuff BeazalBob.  Thanks for your update.
> 
> I appreciate you need to wait for the final numbers to come in to work out the actual yield; but what does the family reckon, gut feelings here on the basis that they know the game, has irrigation been worthwhile?


Everybody is very happy with the yield. Even better considering the roots had a fairly high water content because the plants didn't have enough time to dry out some before harvest because of the late rainy season we had here this year.

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## Pragmatic

I'm stayin out of this.

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## Tosj

> Originally Posted by Necron99
> 
> 
> Bob, what do you estimate the per rai cost of the irrigation?
> Looks cheap as chips. The wealthier farmers here do it for corn as well.
> 
> 
> I figure about 1000 baht per rai not including the well and pump which we already had. The hoses only last 3-4 years before the sun and water gets to them. The stuff is pretty cheap at 850 baht per 1000 m.


Hi Bob, I'm Tosj and new here. I have been reading your post, i'm also busy with drip irrigation, but i was wondering where you got your stuff for 850, cos in Lam Plai Mat they are asking 1700 for 1000 mtr. 2,5l/h distance 30cm. your is a lot cheaper, specially cos i need around 30 km of flat hose. Its for my sugarcane. Greetings and all the best for this new year.

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## Tosj

> Originally Posted by beazalbob69
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  Originally Posted by Necron99
> ...


Found it, seems i had missed one page, DoHome, and they still have them. How long were your drip lines, what kind of pump you feeded your lines? i'm going to make 4 sections. 1 section a night dripping.

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## Jotham79

Hi,

   I read the whole topic, but didn't see what your row spacing and plant spacing was?

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## beazalbob69

Just a small update from a few months ago. We are still using the drip irrigation and we are now using about 3 rai for Mulberry for silk worms which are growing nice. I will be going back in June so more pics to come.

FIL is living in the small hut on this land now and is growing many different fruits and veggies.










Pump house. Well and pump still working well(no pun intended).

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## beazalbob69

This is our Farm Truck or "Tuk Tuk".



Engine.

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## Pragmatic

Nice of you to come back on this. I did raise a point in that I thought drip irrigation didn't increase yield. Have you done any trials in proving that to be false? I'm not having a dig. I'm just inquisitive as I see only a few doing this. But that could well be down to them having no water source. 
Are you based Sa Kaeo region as that's the only area I've seen Mulberry plants growing? My wife's family are from around there and farm silk worm.

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## beazalbob69

> Nice of you to come back on this. I did raise a point in that I thought drip irrigation didn't increase yield. Have you done any trials in proving that to be false? I'm not having a dig. I'm just inquisitive as I see only a few doing this. But that could well be down to them having no water source. 
> Are you based Sa Kaeo region as that's the only area I've seen Mulberry plants growing? My wife's family are from around there and farm silk worm.


As far as yield goes it doesn't really increase it that I can tell but it does cut the growing time substantially. Most people in the area have added some sort of irrigation if they have access to water and a means to pump it. Being able to get 2 harvests instead of 1 in a growing season seems to work out better even if yields are slightly smaller (but imo yields look about the same).

We are located in Korat, west of Chok Chai, in Nong Bunmak. Raising silk worms and Mulberry is new for my village but Korat has some decent production. My wife got into trying it from some older people in the area that are part of a coop I believe. They will show her how to do everything. They were surprised someone younger was interested in silk worm farming as it's a dying trade. 

We haven't started with the silk worms yet due to family tragedy (Wifes 22 yo brother killed in truck accident, was living with us). But the Mulberry we planted are growing well and she has buyers for the leaves.

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## Pragmatic

I live approx 70km East of Chok Chai off route 24. I know Silk is supposed to be a big thing within the Korat area, but I've never seen Mulberry bushes/trees being grown. May be I look in the wrong places. :Smile:

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## beazalbob69

> I live approx 70km East of Chok Chai off route 24. I know Silk is supposed to be a big thing within the Korat area, but I've never seen Mulberry bushes/trees being grown. May be I look in the wrong places.


I have only seen them growing in a couple of places myself. Have done a little research and Thai silk production is way below demand compared to 20 - 30 years ago. Not even enough production to satisfy Thailand's needs never mind exports. Supposed to be better returns compared to cassava but need irrigation and more care than cassava.

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## beazalbob69

> I live approx 70km East of Chok Chai off route 24.


I live about 25km east of Chok Chai off route 24. A little before the Nong Bunmak Hospital.

I said west of Chok Chai before must have been 1/2 asleep. :Smile:

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## Racin

Do you remove all pipes and lines before harvest of the cassava? Or is it a strict manual harvest, no tractors?

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## jamescollister

> Do you remove all pipes and lines before harvest of the cassava? Or is it a strict manual harvest, no tractors?


Irrigation in my area is pumping water between the plants, cassava is planted on small mounds.
So tractor can be used, got to say on my third crop this year/3 years, make about 500 Baht per rai after costs.
Only really bother as it keeps the weeds and fire danger down at no cost.

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## Racin

> Originally Posted by Racin
> 
> 
> Do you remove all pipes and lines before harvest of the cassava? Or is it a strict manual harvest, no tractors?
> 
> 
> Irrigation in my area is pumping water between the plants, cassava is planted on small mounds.
> So tractor can be used, got to say on my third crop this year/3 years, make about 500 Baht per rai after costs.
> Only really bother as it keeps the weeds and fire danger down at no cost.


We have cassava planted and have had before. If you put water lines on top of the ridges, you cannot use the tractor mounted tool for extracting the roots. If you lay the water lines between the ridges, you will squash them with the tractor. Hence my question the OP.

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## beazalbob69

> Do you remove all pipes and lines before harvest of the cassava? Or is it a strict manual harvest, no tractors?


Everything is removed before harvest harvest is the same as without irrigation then it is put back after new planting plus repairing broken PVC where needed.

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## beazalbob69

> Originally Posted by jamescollister
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  Originally Posted by Racin
> ...


We dont use mounds just till the soil and plant. Some do mounds but really doesn't seem to have much benefit.

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## jamescollister

> We dont use mounds just till the soil and plant. Some do mounds but really doesn't seem to have much benefit.


The mounds here are to keep the tubas out of the water, we get a lot of rain and if the ground gets saturated, tubas will rot.
So it really depends on the slop and water run off, have had lots of tubas rot before the rains stop.

This will be my last cassava crop, may go for corn and melons, if I can find buyers. Thing about cassava for me is there is a big buyer a few hundred meters down the road.

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## Pragmatic

> We dont use mounds just till the soil and plant. Some do mounds but really doesn't seem to have much benefit.


The benefit comes with when one harvests. Due to being grown in 'mounds' the plant is easier to lift and less of the tuber gets left in the ground.

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