AYUTTHAYA: Farmers are urging the Royal Irrigation Department to temporarily cease discharging water from flood retention areas to save their new rice crop.
Farmers' representative Ubon Haprathum said on Thursday that crops in Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya, Bang Ban, Bang Pahan districts of Ayutthaya and Pa Mok district in Ang Thong are being hurt by the speed at which water is being discharged from the Bang Kung flood retention area in Bang Ban into the Chao Praya River.
Their recently planted rice could not stand up and produce good heads of grain with the water level receding so quickly, he said.
He wanted the department to stop pushing water out of the retention area to allow their plants to recover, at least until the crop is due for harvest at the end of December.
Bang Kung is one of about 10 retention areas in central provinces used by the department to store water from the Chao Phraya for future use and for flood prevention in provinces downstream, including Bangkok.
Prolonged rainfall, despite the wet season having officialy ended, has forced the department to release some water from the reservoirs.
