MekongEye.com-Oct 24
Unpredictable weather forces rice farmers to abandon their land and head to cities to look for construction work. Migration from rural to urban areas is part of climate adaptation for many Thai farmers facing unpredictable weather. But their new lives in the cities can leave them poor, uncertain and lonely. On the roadside near Soi Kip Moo, one of the largest internal migrant communities in the eastern part of Bangkok, many workers line up every morning and wait to be picked up. Pimonrat Bootjan, 59, a former farmer from the northeast province of Surin’s Sangkha district is one of them. Her destination is a construction site where she works relentlessly throughout the day to build the concrete forest for Thailand’s capital ― in exchange for a daily income that will help her gradually repay her debt and feed her family of three. Her story is typical in her agrarian village in north-eastern Surin province. Almost every household has at least one member moving out because in-season rice cultivation is not sufficient to feed the family. The country’s economic drive is often seen as the major factor as migration has become a part of Thai farmers’ lives since the economic reform of the 1960s ― shifting the Thai economy from agricultural reliance to industrial and service sectors, which attracts farmers from rural areas to cities. But recently, agricultural experts, academics and farmers have pointed out that environmental degradation and unpredictable weather linked to climate change may also contribute to farmers’ decisions to migrate. Read more at: https://www.mekongeye.com/2022/10/24/climate-change-farmers-off-rice-fields/
