Rubber in Isan: The Quiet Cash Crop

When most people think of Isan, they picture endless rice paddies and dusty village roads.

But drive through parts of Bueng Kan, Ubon Ratchathani, or Si Sa Ket, and you’ll notice something different: rows of pale, straight rubber trees stretching quietly across the land.

Rubber isn’t traditional here. It was introduced in the 1990s as part of a government push to help diversify income in Thailand’s poorest region. For farmers facing the ups and downs of rice and cassava markets, rubber offered a long-term crop with a steady, if modest, return. Today, it’s grown mostly by smallholders — not large plantations — and often shares space with other crops.

In Bueng Kan, which borders Laos along the Mekong River, the rubber farms feel especially remote. Early in the morning, you’ll see workers walking between the trees, slicing thin diagonal cuts into the bark. White latex sap drips slowly into recycled cups — coconut shells, tin cans, plastic bottles. It’s a quiet routine, done before the sun gets too strong.

Rubber prices rise and fall. Some years are barely worth the effort; others provide a helpful cushion. But for many families, the trees are a kind of insurance — low-maintenance, long-yielding, and steady in a way that rice often isn’t.

t’s not ancient. It’s not romantic. But it’s part of modern Isan — especially in places like Bueng Kan, where the land is still shifting and survival is shaped one tree at a time.

From the fields of Isan, with fire & rice.

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