Thai Farmers Fret Over Survival as Sluices Shut: Southeast Asia

The fields of Thailand’s Chao Phraya River basin are lush green this month as the region that grows about 30 percent of the country’s rice supply is fed daily by a complex network of irrigation channels.

That will change from November as the government of the second-largest exporter turns off the tap, halting water supplies to 10.7 million rai (1.7 million hectares). With levels in major reservoirs in the kingdom at a 15-year low, the authorities want to conserve water for next year’s harvests, threatening to cut this season’s second rice crop by 36 percent.