Thailand: Turning straw into gold | Global Ideas

after every harvest Thailand's rice farmers burn off the remaining rice straw and stubble to clear their land the acrid smoke carries far and wide on the wind in the northern province of lampung the harvest is underway since early in the morning women have been out in the fields cutting the sheaves with vesicles finally it's time for a lunch break we've been doing this work for generations it's not a big deal we women are strong there's a lot of straw left on the field typically a kilogram per kilogram of rice if it's left to rot it'll release methane a potent greenhouse gas but burning the straw emits co2 and creates fine particulate matter that's harmful to people and the environment yakov on come one wants to change things after completing her studies in Bangkok she decided to return to her home village and develop an alternative farmer Oscar patience is very hard working when I see they grow rice until is grow like this it takes a long time and after I saw each burn is very sad when I come to my hometown I don't share their life they still claw rice much I find solutions for them instead of burning for the entrepreneur rice straw is not waste to be disposed of but a valuable resource she pays the farmers the equivalent of 3 cents a kilo the golden stalks are brought by the truckload to her nearby Factory here the straw is chopped up because the air is full of fine straw particles everyone has to wear a face mask then the small pieces of straw are mixed with hot water no chemicals are added but the mixture has to boil for four hours that produces a pulpy mass which is then cleaned and dried on the factory floor we meet up again with a farmers from the rice field this is a very good thing it used to be that we had no work after the rice harvest but with this factory job I can improve my income the pulp is used to make biodegradable paper and packaging but machines to process the pulp are expensive so the entrepreneur exports the raw material to India we have the India customer because in India there are there are a lot of our modding and tableware manufacturers and the lives of the raw material and they contact us and they are very interesting in our product because it is a biodegradable product the special feature of the tableware is a thin coating of rice starch which helps the product resist grease heat and liquids in a two-hour test with a papaya salad the dish stayed leak-proof the next day we pay a visit to the city of Chiang Mai the economic and cultural heart of northern Thailand yah-hoo one can one stops by a Buddhist temple but her actual destination lies on the outskirts of the city the Science and Technology Park of Chiang Mai University the auditorium at the center of the campus is known appropriately enough as the rice grain here scientists support Thai startups with their expertise the other one comma one would like to manufacture takeaway food packaging made of rice straw in her own factory she hopes that will become financially feasible by 2020 she's especially interested in the researchers work on improving the rice starch film so that it takes longer to dissolve thus from Iraq for him you can't change and by some chemical new chemical for natural for that process like I survived inside of beams the TV's maybe four and finals but do people in Chiangmai need tableware made of rice straw as in most cities in Thailand life here is largely outdoors the hundreds of street vendors and food stands all use disposable containers if you want to start up your own production one vendor says then pay attention to the sizes the bowls shouldn't be too large or the customers will think the portions are too small and the price is important one but but piece would be okay one part is the equivalent of three cents there has a lot of shop that concerns about the environmental issue and it's also I see lighter policy from the cup woman is more stronger than the past they ban to use foam and plastic they encouraged the restaurant our Archie used biodegradable packaging back in her home village yahwah venkamma wong is visiting her grandparents yeah but ham ha ha my wire this is where she started her business a few years ago she carried out her first experiments with rice straw pulp in her grandmother's cooking pots at first her grandparents were far from thrilled is this why they had sent that grandchild to study at great expense in the capital but meanwhile they have ample reason to be proud of her and as the saying goes the rice farmers of lampung have learned how to turn straw into gold because burning it would be a terrible waste you

Channel: DW News

Views: 1,477,860

Rating: 4.912065 out of 5

Keywords: thailand, farming, thailand farming, sustainability, sustainable farming, rice farming, rice, rice farmer

Id: H8kodphRkAc

Length: 7min 21sec (441 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 06 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/CitizenPremier]

That was nice. At first I was like, though, "you mean a basket?"

[u/JSTJED]

I hope the whole world can be inspired by this.