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
The harvest is underway in the northern province of Lampang, Thailand. Since early in the morning, women have been out in the fields cutting the sheaves with vesicles.
Women in Thailand have been doing this work for generations it’s not a big deal, women are very strong over here.
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.
Jaruwan Khammuang an Entrepreneur, wants to change things after completing her studies in Bangkok she decided to return to her home village and develop an alternative.
Jaruwan says “Farmer Oscar’s patience is very hardworking when I see they grow rice until it grows like this it takes a long time and after I see 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 straws are brought by the truckload to her nearby factory.
The straw is chopped up because the air is full of fine straw particles everyone has to wear a face mask, and 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.
Farmers say “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.
Jaruwan Khammuanr says “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 interested 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 scientists at Chiang Mai University, the economic and cultural heart of Northern Thailand support Thai startups with their expertise.
The other comma one would like to manufacture takeaway food packaging made of rice straw in her factory.
She hopes that will become financially feasible by 2020. She is especially interested in the researcher’s work on improving the rice starch film so that it takes longer to dissolve
A scientist from Chang Mai University Mr. Suthapat Kamthai says “Thus from Iraq for him you can’t change and by some chemical new chemical for natural for that process, as 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, but a piece would be okay. One part is the equivalent of three cents.
Jaruwan says “There are a lot of shops that are concerned 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.
Rice farmers of Lampang in Thailand have learned how to turn straw into gold because it would be a terrible waste.
Credits: DW News