Private sector must help fight smog blanketing the northern provinces

The focus, in particular, should be on locals' participation and corn-farm companies.

Let's look at the corn farms first. Why? Because research shows corn farmers usually burn old plants and weeds to clear their land during the first quarter of the year ahead of the farming season. Their activities in effect cause hot spots that pollute the air.

With more than 5 million of the country's 7 million rai (1.12 million hectares) of corn farms concentrated in its North, northern provinces have inevitably been struggling with the smog problem around February and March every year since 2007.

Research also shows the more expansive corn farms become, the worse the air pollution is.

Jongklai Worapongsathorn, director of Chiang Mai's natural resources and environment office, said yesterday that forest fires played a very minor role in the smog problem.

"Most hotspots come from corn farms," he said.

Assistant Professor Suthinee Dontree, a lecturer at Chiang Mai University, said satellite images from 2007, 2010 and 2011 showed that hotspots covered more than 40 per cent of Chiang Mai's Mae Chaem, Hot, Chiang Dao, Omkoi, Chom Thong, Doi Tao, Fang, Chaiya Prakan and Mae Ai districts during the smog season.

Besides the many corn farms in the North, there are expansive farmlands in neighbouring Myanmar.

"Corn farms in Thailand's upper North, Myanmar and Laos must have spread over 10 million rai of land," she said.

At the height of the smog crisis this year, Thailand even had to ask for cooperation from Myanmar in helping prevent its people from clearing their farmland with fires.

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Private sector must help fight smog blanketing the northern provinces