Bumper sugar cane harvest in Thailand.

Farmers harvest a bumper sugar cane crop in North East Thailand. The high yield results from the destructive rains and floods which blighted Thailand in the autumn of 2010. Udon Thani, Thailand. 02/03/2011.

Posted in: Asia, Community, Society, Thailand, Workers
Posted on 24th May 2011

Field burning after a bumper sugar cane harvest. Thailand. 2/03/2011.

Farmers burn waste in their fields after the record sugar cane harvest in Isan, North East Thailand.

Men, women and children are struggling to control the burning field, running around with their watering cans in the searing heat at the end of a long hot day harvesting and transporting their sugar cane crop.

The record high levels of sugar production is a direct consequence of the heavy rains and floods which devastated Thailand in the autumn of 2010.

The bumper yield may boost exports of Thai sugar in 2011, potentially resulting in a global sugar surplus for the first time since 2006. This surplus would depress world sugar prices in a market where other food costs are soaring.

Isan farmers, some of the poorest workers in Thailand, are paid around 950 Baht ($30) per tonne of cut cane. The windfall record harvest is counterbalanced by the loss of income due to the devestaion of the rice fields last year, also caused by the same autumnal floods.

Floods in the early planting season are now causing problems for rice farmers in the north. Global warming?

Updated on 24th May 2011.