Tobacco Road - Isaan Style

Tobacco Growing On the Banks of the Mekong River

Life often presents unexpected opportunities and situations that offer insights into the world around us.  Often we limit our world to that which is within our arm's length grasp or well within our comfort zone - unfortunately that limits our ability to better understand the greater reality of our larger world.

Last week, I went with my wife and two members of her family to visit a Ruesi, a wizard, north of our home near the border town of Nong Khai along the banks of the Mekong River.  I naturally brought along my camera gear with me.

We took some back roads and ended up west of Nong Khai in an area called Tha Bo District, in the Phon Sa Subdistrict.  On our way to the Wat where the Ruesi was located, we drove along a paved two lane road along the banks of the Mekong River.  Under the bright blue sky with high wispy white clouds, we could clearly see across the river into LPDR, Lao People's Democratic Republic.


We are still in the dry season here so the Mekong River, although still a good sized river, is way down - perhaps 40 feet  lower than when it will be in full flood later this year.  Today vast sand bars are exposed.  Heavy equipment on both sides of the river, as well as in the river, are extracting and processing large quantities of sand.

Tobacco Plants

Between the road and the river, were plots of dark green large leaved plants.  Duang did not know what they were but her aunt told us that they were tobacco plants.  I was very interested and pleased that I had brought my camera along for this trip.

As we got closer to our destination, more and more aspects of tobacco cultivation revealed themselves - areas of elevated bamboo racks, workmen repairing irrigation systems, more fields of tobacco in various stages of harvest, somlaws stuffed with bundles of tobacco leaves in transit to processing areas and just outside of our Wat destination - a husband and wife harvesting tobacco!

When we arrived at the destination, I left my wife and family members to go off on my own to photograph the man and woman harvesting tobacco close by.  After a short walk down a narrow road and a short distance on a dirt path, I encountered them as they were finishing up their work and preparing to return to their home with their harvest.

Loading Up Tobacco Into A Somlaw

Somlaws are three wheeled motorcycles used for many purposes.  Somlaws, which many are manufactured here in Isaan, are used as taxis in the villages and cities.  They pick up passengers and take them to their destination for a pre-negotiated fee between the driver/owner and the passenger.  The fees are low and the somlaws are very effective ... for short distances ... in good weather.  Go to any local market, and you will sure to find a plethora of somlaws.  Some bring goods to the market.  Some bring goods from the market out to the outlying neighborhoods and villages.  Still other somlaws hustle about bringing people to and from the market.  Somlaws are like the poor man's pick-up truck - but much cheaper.  Duang and I have ridden in somlaws many times.

Somlaws are also used in the various agricultural enterprises in Northeast Thailand.  The man and woman that I encountered near the Wat used their somlaw to transport their crop of tobacco and no doubt for the crop of chili that was distributed amongst the tobacco plants.  I suspect that the family grew chili amongst the tobacco for several reasons.  Since Duang was not with me, I was unable to ask the people directly about their practice.  However in researching tobacco cultivation, I learned that tobacco plants have natural insecticide properties.  I also learned that tobacco production depletes many micro- minerals from the soil and crop rotation is necessary.  Perhaps the people grow the chilies to supplement the soil nutrients and to take advantage of the shade provided by the tobacco plants.

The tobacco is harvested by hand using curved  knives to cut the leaves from the thick ridged stalk of the plant.  The harvest commences with the lower leaves of the plant when they start to turn yellow. After 1-2 weeks the lower leaves of the plant are harvested once again. There are 4 to 5 harvests spaced 1-2 weeks apart for each tobacco plant.  The leaves are cut from the stalk and placed upon recycled fertilizer or sugar bags. When a sufficient amount of leaves have been placed on the flattened bags, the bags are rolled up to form a roughly three foot diameter bundle of leaves.  The bundles are then placed in a cart or somlaw for transportation to the processing area.


After taking some photos of the man and woman, I returned to the Wat and reunited with my wife and her family members.  They had just finished with their visit with the Ruesi so we headed back to our home about an hour to the south

Tobacco Drying In the Sun On Bamboo Mats

On our way to the Wat, I had noticed some interesting sights to photograph.  As we traveled along the local road that runs parallel to Highway 211, we made stops for me to photograph the cultivation of tobacco.

One stop was at an area where tobacco was drying out in the sun.  The area was comprised of several rows of racks constructed of bamboo.  Woven bamboo mats, many of them covered with a loose fibrous layer of shredded tobacco. were placed upon the bamboo racks.  The bare woven bamboo mats were stained from the nicotine of countless layers of tobacco that had been placed upon them.

In addition to the tobacco drying racks, there were several roughly constructed three sided huts distributed along the perimeter of the area.  The huts were work stations for the processing of tobacco.  Within the huts were stalls where bundles of tobacco were stored beneath thick blankets resembling comforters.  There was also a piece of equipment stored under a tarp inside of each hut.  The equipment is used to chop the leaves for drying.

Tobacco Aging In Processing Hut

The processing huts also contained one or two rough lumber constructed tables, edges and flat surfaces worn smooth from many years of use. Use and age had given the lumber a rich patina - a common sight in Isaan.  On our trip out to this area, we passed an area where there were several businesses selling lumber and lumber products.  The fascinating aspect, for me, of these businesses was that the lumber was recycled homes and structures.  In the past homes and structures such as rice storage buildings and work areas were constructed from teak.  Teak is very durable and does not need painting to be preserved.  Today many of the new homes and structures are constructed out of concrete, cinder block, and brick.  Old homes are often carefully dismantled and relocated - making use of the old teak. For old teak houses that are no longer wanted, businesses will purchase the homes, dismantle them, and recycle the wood - cutting it into sections and sizes to be used in modern construction.  Some business will use their recycled wood to produce doors and garden gazebos.

Isaan Tobacco Worker

Soon after arriving at the processing area, we were joined by a local man and his wife.  They were tobacco processors.  As is so typical here, they were very friendly and hospitable.  They graciously and patiently answered all of my questions as translated by Duang.  They brought us to their nearby hut and showed us and explained how the tobacco is processed.

Tobacco Bundles Aging

From the workers we learned that the processing actually takes place at night.  It was confusing to totally comprehend exactly what time and what was done.  Part of the confusion was the information had to be translated twice.  I also strongly suspect that a great deal of the confusion was caused by the Thai way of telling time - the Thai way is not always used which makes it more confusing to understand exactly what time is being referenced.


From the discussions I left the area believing that the workers start at 8:00 PM bringing tobacco to the work area.  The tobacco is offloaded and stored vertically in bundles inside of the processing shed.  The bundles of the tobacco are covered to control the humidity.  After three days, the tobacco is chopped by machines.  According what I was told, the chopping of the tobacco starts at midnight and is completed by 8:00 AM.  Twice, I verified that the man and his wife would be working that night.


Duang and I discussed and agreed to return later that night to observe the tobacco processing.  We returned home to have dinner and for Duang to change into "winter" clothing for the long night to come.  Our nights have been "cold" lately - roughly 50F.


Once we arrived home, Duang convinced me to wait a while longer before returning to Phon Sa.  I woke her up at 11:00 PM to start our trip north.  After stopping at a 7-11 to get some snacks for the night, we headed north up Highway 2 towards the border.  One nice thing about traveling at night is you essentially own the roads.  There is very little traffic and almost no motorbikes after midnight.  This is great, especially here in Isaan, because many roads do not have lights and many also lack adequate reflective markings.  In many places, especially where there is lights, the combination of on coming traffic, street lights, and flashing lights along the road or from vehicles ahead of yu create some confusing situations.  The lack of traffic enables you to slow down as you feel necessary to sort out the confusion.


We arrived at the tobacco processing area at 1:00 AM - the perfectly dark and unoccupied work area!  I was convinced that all the work had been completed.  Duang assured me that everything was "OK, you not think.  I think people come later"  She then opened the back door of the truck cab and laid down to rest.  I remained in the driver's seat, eating snacks, and periodically checking my watch for the time.  The monotony of the night was only periodically interrupted by the occasional passing of a vehicle on the road running parallel to the Mekong River.


At the sight of each approaching vehicle, my hopes rose that it would be bringing the workers to start processing the tobacco.  Every time, those hopes were dashed as the vehicles continued on their way past the small road that lead down to our location.


As the night wore on, small wispy patches of ground fog materialized and floated around and about our truck and the processing area.  After a while, a long while, some lights came on in the distance - across an irrigation canal.  In the distance, I could just barely make out that it was a tobacco processing shed and people were starting to move about.  This gave me encouragement that perhaps Duang was correct that people would be coming to work.


I exited the pickup truck and took a little walk to determine how to get from where we were to where the lights were without getting wet.  I checked it out and went back to get my camera gear along with Duang to go over to the work area.


As we commenced to leave the truck, two people on a motorbike materialized out of the fog - they made no noise because they had shut off the engine and rolled down the hill to where we were parked.  It was two women coming to start work at 2:30 AM.  They were going to work at the area where we were located.  I followed them the very short distance to their shed.  Now the area was quickly coming to life!  The man and woman that we had visited in the afternoon arrived.  Some other men arrived out of the fog.


Lights, single bare florescent tubes, mounted on small diameter bamboo poles or attached to the sheds, provided some illumination.  At the far end of the drying area, the heavy silence of the night was destroyed by the blaring recording of Morlam (morlum) ethnic music answered by the staccato barking of near by village dogs.  It was the start of the work night ... a long work night for sure.

Tobacco Being Shredded by "Turbo" Shredder

Even with the illumination from the florescent lights, it was a surrealistic scene.  People came in and out of the shadows.  The rich color of the aged tobacco being chopped and handled added a color cast to the scene - bundles of tobacco leaves, whirling pieces of shredded tobacco, shredded tobacco piling up on recycled bags placed on the straw covered ground, masses of tobacco being transported in hand carts, and masses of shredded tobacco being made into mats on woven bamboo trays .  The sound of electrically powered machines chopping tobacco provided a baseline to offset the blaring music from afar.  On top of it all, I could hear the distinctive voice of my wife doing one of the things that Lao Loum people (ethnic Lao) do best and most - talk!  It is typical here in Isaan to encounter people and within 10 minutes observers would be led to believe that you were with family members.  The people enjoy talking about themselves and learning about you - it is all very open and candid.

The processing of the tobacco started with setting up the machine to shred the tobacco leaves.  There appeared to me to be two types of machines.  The first machine, one that I had been shown in the afternoon, I refer to as the "Turbo".  The turbo machine is a self feeding electrical machine that uses spinning wheel cutters to chop the leaves.  The chopped tobacco is axially ejected from the machine through a front fairing.  This machine casts quite a bit of chopped tobacco into the area surrounding it.  Fine netting, like the type used in threshing rice, is placed underneath and in front of the turbo cutter on the straw covered ground.  Recycled fertilizer and sugar bags are placed flat on the netting to capture the shredded tobacco.  Sometimes cardboard is set up to more efficiently deflect the stream of shredded tobacco to fall on the recycled flattened bags.

Shredding Tobacco With the "Guillotine"

The other type of equipment used to chop and shred tobacco, I refer to as the "Guillotine".  The guillotine, or perhaps it could be referred to as the "Chop-o-matic", is my favorite.  It is an electrical powered self feeding slicing knife.  Through a complicated mechanism of moving parts and lubricators, a single EXPOSED knife runs moves through cyclic motion cutting the tobacco.  Unlike the turbo slicer, the guillotine requires some maintenance as it operates. Periodically as the  machine was running, the operator would squirt some water out of a recycled dish washing detergent bottle on to the knife then used some sort of pad to rub the outside of the oscillating knife blade.  Duang told me that it was to keep the knife blade cool.  I also believe that it was to help keep the cutting mechanism clean and prevent it from clogging/plugging up.  The guillotine does not put shredded tobacco into the air like the turbo however it is slower. It makes a neat pile of shredded tobacco beneath the cutter.  Periodically the operator would scoop up the pile in his hands and place the shredded tobacco into a hand cart that when filled would be rolled over to the drying racks.


Be it the "Turbo" or the "Guillotine", the shredders are very dangerous machines - exposed belts, moving metal parts that cut, lacerate and pinch.  Machines that as they are configured now would not be allowed to operate in many countries.  The workers are aware of the dangers and I did not observe any with missing hands or fingers.  On top of the mechanical dangers of the machines there were the dangers of the electrical system.  Although it was in a moist outdoor location, there were no GFI (Ground Fault Interrupters), or weatherproof connectors or boxes associated with the 220 volt system. As Duang says "Thailand not like America"

Forming Shredded Tobacco Mat For Drying

Whether shredded by the turbo or guillotine machines the next step in processing the tobacco was to place it on the woven bamboo trays supported on bamboo racks.  Large handfuls of the freshly shredded tobacco are placed upon empty woven bamboo trays about 30 inches wide by 5 foot long.  Under the harsh and dim light of a single florescent light tube some distance away, a woman distributes and pats the shredded tobacco by hand to form a single mat of tobacco fibers about 1/2 inch thick.  When several trays are covered with tobacco mats, they are carried into the shadows and placed upon empty racks to await the rising of the sun.  The worker returns to her work area with empty trays to replace the trays that have been previously filled and so it goes for the entire night.

The tobacco is processed at night to ensure that it can be dried by the sun for a full day.  This minimizes the possibility of  mold growing.  The tobacco is sun dried for one day with the mat turned over once during the drying cycle.  If there is not sufficient sunlight, the tobacco is dried for two days.  The women handling the shredded tobacco as well as the men shredding the leaves wear latex gloves. not to prevent contaminating the product but to protect themselves from getting sick - GTS (Green Tobacco Sickness).  Handling wet tobacco can cause GTS.  I have read that tobacco harvesters should wear rain suits when harvesting tobacco wet from dew.  However the people that I observed harvesting tobacco wear not wearing any type of personal protection.  Although the tobacco processors were wearing latex gloves, the remainder of their clothing was typical of what you find Isaan workers of all types wearing - typically an athletic outfit or jeans and cotton shirt with a tee shirt wrapped around their head to form a sort of balaclava - balaclava Isaan style!


After the tobacco has been dried, it is formed into thick 1 Kg rings - roughly 24 inches diameter and 4 inches thick.  Ten of the rings are placed in a long plastic bag and sold to a representative of the TTM - Thai Tobacco Monopoly.


So what do people do with all that tobacco?  TTM uses it to make cigarettes.  Of the amount of tobacco that makes it to the private market, my wife believes that 80% of it is used in betelnut chewing with 20% going to roll your own cigarettes.  We bought 4 Kg and gave it to Duang's mother.  When Duang gave it to her mother she remarked that there was so much that she would die before it was all gone - a pinch of tobacco is used when chewing betel nuts.  Duang's mom is a good sport and just laughed.


We enjoyed the company of the workers and observing their work until approximately 4:00 AM when we set off for home, arriving at 5:00 AM and straight to bed for a well deserved as well as needed "night's" (morning?) sleep.


I had been presented with a great opportunity to observe and experience a different part of my world.  As always Duang was completely supportive of my desire to show ordinary people doing extraordinary things. It is all out there at all times, day or night, if we just allow ourselves to stretch the boundaries of our comfort zone and zone of experience.  I am fortunate to have a wife, a partner, who is fully willing to travel there with me.  We are also fortunate to live in a region where these encounters and experiences are so easy and available to experience.

Mushroom Farming in Isaan

This blog was a long time in coming.  I started to write the blog eleven days ago, but I was not certain regarding the facts and details of the process for cultivating mushrooms here in Northeast Thailand.

Thanks to the wonders of the Internet and Google, I found some excellent information related to how mushrooms are supposed to be grown here. An excellent source was the "Mushroom Grower's Handbook" 2004 by MushWorld (if some one knows about how mushrooms are supposed to be grown is has got to be these guys!)

The sugar cane harvest is winding down now, but outside of the Kumphawapi Sugar Cane Company, there are huge mounds of waste - "bagasse" - a waste product that Duang and I refer to as "key oi" (sugar shit).  Bagasse smells sickening  - a combination of extremely smelly feet and overpowering sweetness.  Bagasse is composed of fiber, moisture, and soluble solids.  It is roughly one-half cellulose, one-third carbon, one percent nitrogen, with some potassium and phosphorous.

Often during our travels out to Duang's village we see people picking through the fresh moist mounds of bagasse seeking out mushrooms.  Local farmers also purchase truckloads of the waste to add to their  land as a soil conditioner.

My research indicated that sugar bagasse is used as a substrate for cultivating oyster mushrooms.  I became comfortable in my belief that Duang's relatives were growing oyster mushrooms.  Delving further into the handbook, Chapter 5, I started to have my doubts regarding the mushroom process in Isaan that I had observed previously. The handbook showed substrate being made and placed in small plastic bags that would then get inoculated with spawn. It outlined spawn preparation. The chapter also discussed incubation as well as pasteurization.

Duang's Aunt Preparing Mushrooms

I asked Duang what kind of mushrooms were the people growing.  She replied "Hed Fang"

With that information, I returned to my Internet research, this time- Chapter 2 of the handbook. Lo and behold, there was a table, Table 1, that was a list of commercially cultivated mushrooms in Thailand.  In addition to the common name, and Latin name the table provided the Thai name for the mushroom.  The last entry in the table was "Hed Fang" - Straw mushroom.  Things were starting to make more sense - I had seen rows of straw mounds where underneath I knew mushrooms were growing.

The remainder of the chapter provided details that confirmed some of my observations, straw mushrooms being grown from December to April  but a great detail of information no where near what I had seen on my trips out to the family mushroom plot.

It turns out that mushroom cultivation here in Isaan is another example of "The ways that things are supposed to be and the way that they really are."

I have written several times about the duality and dichotomy of life here in Isaan, I now realize that it also applies to matters other than religion, morality, ethics, and politics.

Aside from the way mushrooms are supposed to be cultivated, I will now share how they are cultivated by Duang's family along with several other villagers that I have observed.

Duang's Aunt Processing Straw Mushroom Spawn

One morning when we drove out to Tahsang Village, we saw Duang's aunt, Kwan's grandmother, sitting on the raised rustic platform located outside of her house busily working.  It turned out that she was preparing to grow some mushrooms.

Placed on the ground off to her right, were several large Kraft paper bags each packed solid with several clear plastic bags.  The plastic bags were stuffed with a moist organic mass and the ends were secured with PVC plastic collars.  The bags looked exactly like the bags used to grow mushrooms the way that they are supposed to according to the handbook - but not the Tahsang Village way.

Duang's aunt was busy removing the PVC collar from the bags and pulling the compressed organic cylinders from the polypropylene bags.  A large plastic tub, in front of her, rested on the platform. The tub had seen better days - about 50% of its rim had become detached from the thin walls of the container.  However the tub still was fit for many purposes, just not as many as previously.

A grating, perhaps a recycled oven rack or part of a display case covered part of the black tub.  After freeing the cylinders from their confines of the bags, Duang's aunt broke them up with her hands along with the action of running them back and forth across the grating.  Broken organic matter accumulated in the tub beneath the grating.

When the black tub was filled with broken organic matter, Duang's aunt added some handfuls of a prepared powder (special super secret powder?) using her hands to thoroughly mix and blend the contents of the tub. I suspect that the prepared powder contained nutrients and chemicals to assist the bloom and growth of the mushrooms. She then placed the loose mixture into the empty Kraft paper bags.  Later that day, at 4:00 P.M. the mixture would be used at the site of the family mushroom plot.

We dropped by the mushroom plot at 4:00 P.M.  The sun sets around 5:30 P.M. so the temperature was more bearable.

Kwan, Pare, and Their Grandfather Arrive to Work On Mushrooms

Duang's uncle arrived with his two granddaughters to work the mushrooms.  The plot consisted of several rows of plastic covered mounds.

The first task was to remove the polyethylene plastic sheet covering each row. Removing the sheeting carefully off to the side of each row revealed a line of compacted rectangles of what I assumed to be sugar bagasse for the substrate to grow the mushrooms.  Wrong!  I checked with Duang's uncle and it turned out that the blocks were actually formed out of cassava waste from the local mill.  I asked about what layers of other components did he use to make the rectangular blocks - the handbook had listed the layers and components to construct blocks.  Oh I forgot ... that is the way that they are supposed to be constructed.  The way that they are actually constructed, at least in Tahsang Village, is to put cassava processing waste in a wood form and compact it to form the free standing substrates.

Once the substrates in a row had been uncovered, Duang's uncle walked down the row sprinkling by hand the material that his wife had prepare earlier in the day.

Sprinkling Spawn on Substrates

Once the spawn material had been distributed along a row, the row was sprinkled with water from a watering can.  Once a row had been watered, the plastic sheet was then carefully placed over the substrates.  The free ends of the plastic sheet were held down with loose soil that bordered the rows.

Three days later the plastic sheet was removed from the rows and after hand made home made bamboo strips where installed to form hoops along the row, the sheeting was placed over the row of substrates.  A thick mat of rice straw was placed over the tent row formed by the hoops and plastic sheet.

Mushrooms Ready For Harvest

After three days, the straw was removed and the plastic sheeting was pulled to the side to expose the first harvest of Hed Fang.  Using ordinary kitchen knives, the women carefully cut the mushrooms ensuring that a portion of the stem remained on the substrate.  After harvesting of the crop, the sheeting was returned and then covered with straw.

Three separate crops of mushrooms are produced from a row - each crop about 3 days apart.

Preparing Harvested Mushrooms for Market.

The family receives roughly 70 baht a kilogram ($1.06 USD/pound) wholesale for their mushroom crops.  The family also enjoys the mushrooms in their cuisine.

I am continually impressed in the ability of the Lao Loum people here in Isaan to do what is necessary to care for themselves and family.  I have seen them grow rice, cultivate corn, sugar cane, peanuts and cassava.  They weave their own fishnets, and  baskets.

The people are very resourceful and self-reliant.  I consider myself very fortunate to be able to observe and document this way of life.  I consider it to be my responsibility to share this way of life with others if for no other reason than to educate others as to how others live.

Planting Cassava



Planting Cassava In NE Thailand

My last blog entry was about harvesting cassava (manioc, tapioca, Brazilian Arrowroot) on Duang's aunt's land eleven days ago, so it is logical that my next blog entry would be about replanting the cassava crop.  Replanting?  Yes.  As part of the harvesting process, the long slender stalks of the cassava plant were saved.  The stalks stripped of branches and leaves were gathered up from the field and transported back to the family home.

Back at the farmer's home or at a willing relative's home, the stalks are stacked like cord wood.  The stalks are then cut into 8 to 9 inch long pieces with a heavy cane knife - one stalk at a  time - a job performed by both men and women.  The short pieces of stalk are collected in woven baskets.  The pieces are then brought over to a tub of water where they are washed and wet down before placing them into recycled fertilizer or rice bags.  The stalk sections remain in the bags for three days, after which they are transported out to a prepared field and planted by hand.

After harvesting the field eleven days ago, Duang's family waited a few days before preparing the stalks from the harvest.  Yesterday they called to let us know that they would be replanting the field that had been previously harvested.  I grabbed my camera bag and we headed out to Tahsang Village - arriving at 10:00 A.M.

Although the cassava was being planted by hand, the actual preparation of the field is performed by a tractor.  Our weather has turned hot ... eleven days of heavily overcast grey skies with high temperatures around 38 degrees ... 38 degrees Celsius (centigrade) - 100F!  Upon our arrival, the temperature was already 34C  (94F).  Besides the heat, there was a great deal of dust.  The rains just before the harvest eleven days ago were just a tease.  The monsoon rains have not returned yet although the weather is more unsettled.  The ground is now very dry.

The heavy furrows created by the tractor plowing the ground were bone dry - fine particles of clay and slightly larger grains of sand without any organic matter or moisture to bind them together.  I placed the cover to a piece of my photo gear on a fertilizer bag laying flat on the ground.  When we packed to return to our home 30 minutes, I was stunned at the amount of dust on the cover.  I was glad that I had decided not to change lenses in that environment.

Loading Up Basket With Cassava Stems

Workers were kept busy loading up woven hand baskets with cassava stalks from the recycle fertilizer bags containing the processed stems from the house.  After loading up their baskets, the workers walked along the dusty furrows across the field.  At set intervals along the furrow, they tossed one of the 6-9 inch long stalks on top of the raised mounds bordered by the furrows.

Distributing Cassava Stalks Along the Furrows

While half of the crew distributed the stalks, the other half of the crew followed along, sticking the short stalks into the soft mounded earth.

Another Stalk In the Dirt

There was a rhythm to their labor - the work proceeded at a rather quick pace - a choreographed series of movements developed and fine tuned over many years of toil.

A Busy Morning In the Fields Outside Tahsang Village

The parked farm truck offered a little relief to the workers - a jug of cool drinking water with a common cup, a couple recycled fertilizer bags placed on the ground to sit upon, and just a tiny bit of some shade.  Things were so bad that the family dog spent all his time underneath the truck.

After one-half hour, I started gathering up my gear.  I walked over to my wife and asked her if she wanted to go home.  She quickly nodded "Yes" and actually got back to the truck before I did.

I could not imagine spending another 6 to 6-1/2 hours out there photographing let alone planting the cassava.  I could not imagine, but for the workers, it was their reality, their life.  I am impressed with people that I refer to as survivors, people who do what is necessary to support themselves as well as their family.  For many people surviving requires efforts and a life that many people can not imagine.

However, seeing and learning how people survive provides inspiration and admiration of what people are capable of.  It also demonstrates how much that we take for granted is not necessary to survive or to be happy.

Cassava Harvest In Isaan

Harvesting Cassava In Northeast Thailand

These are busy times once again in the fields of Northeast Thailand, a region known as Isaan (Isarn, Esarn, Isan).  The sugar cane harvest which started in December continues albeit winding down.  The weather is changing headed towards the rainy season.

The sugar cane harvest that commenced in December continues albeit tapering off and will be over in the middle of next month. In addition to the cutting of cane, workers are busy planting the next crop of cane.  Some of the cut canes are reserved and not sent to the local refineries.  The reserved canes are laid flat in narrow shallow trenches across the fields. After being sprinkled by hand with dry commercial fertilizer, the canes are covered with dirt.  In short time especially with the return of the rains new canes sprout up from the old buried canes.

In anticipation of the full return of the monsoon rains in the next one to two months, farmers are preparing their rice paddies.  Dikes are being built and maintained as necessary.  The land bounded by the dikes are being turned over to bury vegetation, aerate the ground, and prepare it to receive and hold the rainwater to come - water necessary for the wet cultivation method of rice cultivation.

Now is also the time for harvesting and selling sweet corn along the side of the road.  Unlike the USA, sweet corn is sold cooked and not raw at roadside stands.  Next to the stand you will typically find large pots or kettles filled with salted water and husked corn.  On the shelf of the primitive stand recycled plastic shopping bags of cooked corn are displayed for sale.

Two weeks ago we had some rain 6 out of 7 days.  The rain was not a great deal, roughly six millimeters each day, but it was significant in the sense that it allowed activities related to local agriculture to commence.

The recent rains have allowed the harvest of cassava to proceed.  Cassava, also known as Brazilian Arrowroot, Manioc, and Tapioca, is one of the important crops here in Northeast Thailand.  Cassava is drought resistant and can grow in poor soils - two conditions that Isaan has in over abundance.  The rains end in September and do not resume until April or May.  The soil of Isaan is a combination of sand and clay with very little, if any, organic components.

Cutting Cassava Stalks

Cassava is a woody shrub that has tubers that are a source of carbohydrates.  Thailand is the world's greatest exporter of dried cassava.

Here in Isaan, the cassava is harvested when the stalks are about two meters (six feet) tall.  The plants achieve two meters height about six months after being planted.  Besides being drought resistant and capable of growing in poor soil, cassava presents other advantages to the Lao Loum farmers of Isaan.

First of all, it is not always necessary to purchase seeds, or cuttings to plant a crop of cassava.  If you harvest a crop of cassava, the stalks are kept, processed, and replanted to produce a new crop.  If you do not have a crop to process for the next crop, you can purchase cuttings for 2,000 Baht (approx $66 USD) for one rai (0.39 acres) of land.

Secondly, it is not necessary to purchase fertilizer for the cultivation of cassava. There is also no need to purchase insecticides to apply to the crop.

Thirdly, once the crop is planted, no additional labor is required until the crop is ready to be harvested.

The market price for cassava today is 60,000 Baht (approx $2,000 USD) for 5 rai of crop delivered to the processor in nearby Kumphawapi.

Cassava is harvested by hand,  Duang's Aunt had called to let us know that they would be harvesting 5 rai of her cassava crop the following day.  The harvesting crew was comprised of 3 hired hands and 3 family members.  It would take 4 days to harvest the crop and an additional 2 days to process the stalks for replanting with one day to plant the stalks for the next crop.  The hired help receive 300 baht ($10 USD) and two meals for an 8 hour day.

Duangchan Cutting Cassava Stems

The harvest crew was split into two groups, each with distinct tasks to perform.  The women, whom Duang joined in working, used sugar cane knives to cut the tall slender stalks about 25 cm (10 inches) above the ground. They then skillfully used the knives to lop off the branches and leaves.  They walked along the rows of stalks continuing this process until their non-knife hand could no longer hold anymore stalks at which point the bar stalks were placed in a neat bundle on the ground to be collected later.

Duang Trimming A Cassava Stalk

In the meantime the men were occupied extracting the tubers from the ground.  The men used a special tool to pry the tubers from the ground in which they have grown deeper and bigger over the previous six months.  The tool was a simple tool based upon the engineering principle of the lever. The tool was a stout bamboo pole, about 2.5 meters long (8 foot) with a chisel point on one end.  About 76 cm (28 in) from the chisel tip there was a metal collar around the pole with a stepped metal plate extending from the collar.  The function of the metal plate is to grab and secure the stem stub sticking out of ground to convert it into a fulcrum necessary to create the mechanical advantage associated with a lever for pulling the tubers out of the ground.

Base of Cassava Tuber Extraction Tool

To extract the mass of tubers, often entangled together, the worker positions the pole so that the stub of the plant stem is grabbed and captured by the metal plate of the extraction tool.  Once the stem is secured, the worker lifts the free end of the pole as high as is necessary or as high as he can to pull the tuber roots out of the ground.  This is physically demanding work since the tubers are large, deep, entangled, and have not been disturbed since they were planted six months earlier.

Pulling Cassava Roots Out of the Ground

Once the majority of the plant's tubers are pulled above ground, the worker uses his hands to completely break them free from the Earth's grasp.  Many times the worker has to bend down or kneel on the ground so that he can remove any broken roots still embedded in the ground.

The masses from several plants are stacked together to await loading into a farm wagon or truck to then be transported to the local commercial processor in Kumphawapi.  Soon the field is dotted and lined with mounds of cassava roots and stacked  stems.

Stacking Cassava Tubers

Unfortunately with the anticipated return of the seasonal rains, the temperatures are increasing.  Our high temperature for the past week has been in the high 30's ... that is high 30's Celsius ... 38C - 100F.  Mid-April is our hottest time of the year with highs of 100 -105F and lows at night of 85-90F.  The high temps and rainy weather are part of the cycle of life here in Isaan.  They are necessary for life to continue.  They are necessary to nourish the people with their staple rice for the up coming year.

The cassava harvest is a milestone along the cycle of rural life here in Isaan for the Lao Loum people and those who choose to live amongst them.