Eucalyptus a bad experience for farmers:
Harms nearby crops, kills water sources

by Onnucha Hutasing, Bangkok Post, September 6, 1999

While the government has rolled out the red carpet to embrace a multi-billion-baht Sino-Thai pulp and paper joint venture project, which entails massive eucalyptus cultivation on 200,000 rai of land in the Northeast, many eucalyptus growers are less enthusiastic and doubt the project will help improve their income and livelihood. Several growers of this fast-growing plant have openly admitted that they made a great mistake for having switched from their traditional rice cultivation to eucalyptus planting with the hope of earning extra income. Several years afterward, their hopes have yet to be realised and appears to be getting dimmer and dimmer. But worst of all, they have found to their dismay that their once fertile land has become dry and barren, unable to support any crop except for eucalyptus.

Many want to switch back to growing rice. But it is not possible because they cannot afford the high cost of hiring an earth-moving machine to get rid of the tentacles of eucalyptus roots which have pierced deep into the soil and spread over their land. Even if the roots are eradicated, they are not sure the land will be fit for other crops to survive even with heavy fertilisation.

The long line of ten-wheel trucks which can be seen queuing up to unload their cargo-eucalyptus trunks-at Phoenix pulp and paper plant in Khon Kaen is a clear illustration of a dream which has turned sour for many planters. Most days, the queue extends for many kilometres. And a truck may take a week for its turn to unload the cargo. The factory, it was reported, can take only 400-500 tons of eucalyptus wood a day or just 100 trucks.

Pramuan Thananan, 49, from Ban Nongkhark village, Kushi Narai district of Kalasin province, said he spent five nights on the queue. His cost included 130 baht wages for tree-cutting labour and a 300-baht daily rent for the truck. He said he hoped to get a net profit of 3,000 baht from his 24-ton load of eucalyptus wood. In reality however, he will not get that much because the factory advances payment in cheque, payable in three months. To get cash, Mr Pramuan and many of his fellow planters have to sell the cheques to brokers who charge 1.75-3% discount, right in front of the factory. Mr Pramuan used to grow eucalyptus on his own four-rai land when state officials promoted the plant five years ago. Now, he says he feels sorry about his decision because the trees have ruined his land and nearby rice fields.The villager said he also noticed that the well in his backyard, which was only 4-5 metres deep, used to yield water throughout the year. After a couple of years of eucalyptus cultivation, he said the well dried up and he had to dig another 20-30 metres to reach the water table.

Eucalyptus plantations spread out rapidly in the Northeast thanks to active promotion from the state over the last five years. Villagers joined the scheme by planting eucalyptus on the edges of their land plots, only to face the same adverse impact on their rice crops in the field.

"Underground water dries up a few years after eucalyptus trees are planted because they need a large amount of water. Their leaves give a strange smell that even chase fish away from paddies. They give no shade and even birds do not nest in their branches. Other nearby trees gradually die because eucalyptus simply takes all water and nutrients from the soil," said Samran Udomsak of Khao Suankwang district, Khon Kaen. Mr Samran once tried eucalyptus on part of his land but later uprooted all of it because rice in his paddies did not grow as usual. Until now, no other plants can grow in the area once occupied by eucalyptus.

"Villagers have realised that eucalyptus ruins the soil. If the state tries to promote the plant again, no one will join the scheme. It's better to grow rice because we can sell it right away or keep it for our own consumption. Growing eucalyptus, we must wait three to four years before they are big enough to cut. What will we eat while waiting for the trees?" he said.

Chayne Janpol from Nachuak district of Maha Sarakham said the amount of eucalyptus in the Northeast was 70-80% more than the demand from pulp and paper factories; therefore, farmers could not rely on the price of the wood. "There is plenty of eucalyptus and every farmer wants to sell his wood. I am determined not to grow the plant on my 49 rai of land. I don't think it's worthwhile to dry up the land where no other plants can grow afterwards," he said.

Pulp fiction makes govt willingly blind
to reality on the ground:
Dreams of big export income killing fields

by Onnucha Hutasingh, Bangkok Post, September 6, 1999

Eucalyptus was first introduced into Thailand in the northern province of Chiang Mai in 1950. Hailed as a fast-growing tree, it was promoted by the government under a reforestation scheme to rehabilitate the Thung Kula Rong Hai plains in the Northeast.Eventually, it was introduced to every corner of the country, supposedly to replenish denuded forests. When the adverse impact of eucalyptus plantations became increasingly obvious and resulted in conflicts among locals, the Forestry Department suspended the promotional scheme.

In 1993, the Chuan Leekpai administration saw the benefit of pulp production, so it launched a new project to encourage the private sector to grow eucalyptus to feed the industry. The state leased out land for the private sector to grow the trees and charged a minimal rent of 10 baht per rai annually. It also attracted farmers to join the plantation by offering soft loans at 5% interest and a grace period of five years. Farmers who owned hundreds of thousand rai participated during 1995 and 1997.

Besides, the forest master plan of the government specifies eucalyptus and pulp production as major tools to rehabilitate deteriorated forests. It expects 20 million rai (32,000sqkm) of eucalyptus to feed the local pulp industry. The production demanded 18 million cubic metres of eucalyptus in 1990 and annual demand is expected to reach 55 million cubic metres in 2015.

The latest development saw an agreement between the Chinese government and Thai private operators to establish a factory with an annual capacity to produce 700,000 tons of pulp and the production needs 200,000 rai of eucalyptus plantations. The Forestry Department has been assigned to arrange acreage for plantation. It will allocate deteriorated forests in the Northeast and offer land rights to poor villagers who join the scheme.

Kampeng Santo from Ubonrat district of Khon Kaen was among those who who joined the first eucalyptus scheme of the department in the past. He paid little because the department gave him seeds and promised to grant 10 cows and land right deeds. The promises have not been honoured in the past 16 years. Meanwhile, Mr Kampeng cannot quit his eucalyptus plantation because it is costly to uproot the trees. It costs 100-130 baht to cut each eucalyptus tree and 2,000 baht more per rai to uproot stumps.

"Eight out of every 10 people wanted to quit within the first two years because they devoted all their land to eucalyptus and the trees were not big enough to fell. Many people left for Bangkok to find jobs," Mr Kampeng said.

Panya Thonglert from Kasetvisai district of Roi-et was forced to grow eucalyptus five years ago after neighbours planted the trees around his paddy field, vastly diminishing its yield of rice. Now he has to grow rice on others' land far away and continue with eucalyptus on his own plot.

In 1984, the Tambon Kampang council agreed with the eucalyptus programme of the Forestry Department to grow the trees on 480 rai of public land under its jurisdiction. Locals could not cut them for their own benefit because the trees were declared as assets of the department. At present, the land is full of eucalyptus and the department has never taken care of them.

"Villagers want the land to be cleared of eucalyptus because they do not have any grass fields to feed their cattle. More importantly, irrigation wells dry up wherever eucalyptus are planted. Without rain, the people's paddy fields will be in trouble," said Sunthorn Sangnam, a former village headman in the area.

Mr Sunthorn had signed an agreement to allow the planting of eucalyptus in his village. Today, he still regrets the decision, which he says has brought problems to his people. "I just wanted a forest to add green areas to our village. At that time, I did not foresee the problems," he lamented.

Meanwhile, Pitaya Petmark, an expert from the Forestry Department, described the eucalyptus as a good choice because it could grow fast on infertile land. "Eucalyptus needs a lot of water in the first few years but when they fully grow, they will consume less water and will return the humidity to the soil within 10 years," he said.

However, eucalyptus trees in Thailand are felled to feed pulp production when they are five years old and replacement saplings are planted immediately. This means that eucalyptus plantations are always thirsty and the soil does not have the chance to retain humidity. Mr Pitaya argued that growing eucalyptus was making worthwhile use of infertile land. "To me, between eucalyptus and rice, it's better to grow eucalyptus because they grow fast and need no care. Northeasterners may disagree because of their old-fashioned thinking that they should be able to reap their crop every year," he noted.

However, Pakpoom Vitantiravat, a legal representative of the Forum of Northeastern Farmers, argued that there was no more deserted, infertile land in the Northeast because people had already occupied all areas, even in national forest reserves. Therefore, the plan to grow eucalyptus in deserted areas is irrational. "The 200,000 rai of eucalyptus needed to feed the Chinese joint venture will cause a new round of massive conflict among locals because the Forestry Department will expel people who do not join the eucalyptus scheme," Mr Pakpoom said.

He also noted that Thai pulp and paper factories were polluting the environment because their process included chlorine for whitening purposes, and waste water containing carcinogenic dioxin was being discharging into natural water sources, while the authorities were too weak to tackle the problem.