Panu Taweepon grows melons in his small farm in Surat Thani province, some 500 kilometres south of Bangkok. His ‘New Farmer Farm’ is just 3,200 m2 in size, but his income from this small parcel could be much more than a rice farmer with several hectares can earn.
On his small farm, he has several greenhouses each measuring just about 60 m2. From one greenhouse he harvests 500 marketable fruits, each weighing at least two kilos. That means he can harvest one ton of produce from that tiny space. At 100 baht per kilo, that’s worth 100,000 baht or about €2,600. In one year, he can grow three crops so that’s a gross of nearly €8,000 just from one greenhouse.
What’s interesting is that Panu operates his NF Farm by himself with the occasional help of his mother. It’s not difficult for his mother to look after the farm because the plants in the greenhouse are drip irrigated; watering and fertilization are done by simply opening a valve.
According to newsbits.mb.com.ph, a typical order is five fruits in a box weighing about 12 kilos (some fruits weigh more than two kilos). The total cost, including shipping, is 1,450 baht or €37,-.
