High Corn Prices Hit Tobacco Plantings

Source from:  tr.itsmyiq.com Dec 6, 2007 12/07/2007

Tobacco plantings have fallen significantly in northern Thailand this year as farmers have been drawn to the higher prices being offered for other crops, particularly corn grown for ethanol production, according to a nationmultimedia.com report. "The corn price this year is up by 50 per cent to about Bt6 per kg, due to the demand for the crop for ethanol production," said Chiang Mai Tobacco Growers' Association president, Wiwat Saraithong. The tobacco plantation areas were never constant because some land was always diverted for other crops, he added. But this year had seen the sharpest drop in plantation areas, particularly in Nan and Chiang Rai. Woranoot Jittalan, a grower in the Mae Wang district of Chiang Mai, said that in her district the area planted to tobacco had fallen by 50 per cent and that the number of farmers had dropped by 90 per cent. "It's natural," she added. "Farmers spend six months a year to grow tobacco and clear the land for the next-round plantation, against two or three months for corn." Enditem