Chainat’s provincial authority has told local farmers to refrain from burning dried rice straw in their fields because burning causes the emission of methane, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

Supatra Klaitim, chief of Chainat’s Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department, instead encourages farmers to adopt a more environmentally friendly rice straw management practice, which is to plough mixed rice straw and stubble into the soil.

Every dry season, highways in Chainat are often covered with smoke from the burning of rice straw in nearby paddy fields. This poses dangers for motorists who are using the highway. Some farmers are careless in controlling their burn off and the fires have sometimes got out of control and caused major damage to other people’s property and assets.