CityNews – The Mae Hia municipality in Chiang Mai has offered an alternative procedure to curb the onslaught of burning of crops by farmers in the region, which greatly contributes to the annual “smog season” in the North.
Having realised that merely forbidding farmers from burning vegetation will not solve the haze problem, the municipality has created a “natural bank” where farmers are encouraged to deposit their natural waste in return for fertilizer.
The bank will offer the farmers bio-extracts from their own organic waste, which will help them better grow their vegetables and fruits in future, and hopefully encourage more farmers to turn their organic waste into fertilizer instead of burning it.
The coordinator of the project, Suthiphat Thirawatsakul, said that although the municipality law prohibits burning and punishes violators with a fine of 2,000 baht each time they are caught breaking the law, the haze problem seems to be growing worse every year.