Rubber and palm farmers in Tha Uthae, Kanchanadit District, Surat Thani Province, use their free time to process areca sheaths into food containers, expanding their income from waste materials and expanding into a community state enterprise. Mrs. Anchalee Barameerungruang, 57 years old, the president of the community enterprise group promoting the career of rubber farmers in Tha Uthae Subdistrict, Kanchanadit District, Surat Thani Province, said that Tha Uthae rubber and palm farmers, after having free time from rubber and palm plantations, have gathered together more than 30 people to earn extra income by making food containers from areca sheaths, which are leftover materials from areca palm trees, to make square plates and round cups from a semi-automatic food packaging machine, which has been promoted by the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation. It has also been certified by the Department of Medical Sciences 12 Songkhla as safe containers, passing the Colony Forming Unit (CFU) test, which is a unit obtained from the microorganism counting method, with the number of microorganisms CFU per piece less than 10, the number of yeast and mold CFU per piece less than 10, and can be further developed and expanded into a community state enterprise, with women's friends and many government agencies traveling to study the work, which can be further developed to generate income for the women's group and their families. For areca sheaths or areca nut sheaths (Kanchanadit local language), they are waste materials that are commonly found in rural areas or communities. Most farmers burn them to destroy them. One piece of areca sheath can be made into about 10 square plates or round cups, which are sold at 10 baht each. Each day, there will be a rotating group of members who come to work. Each person will receive a dividend from the sales after deducting 20% ??of the cost of sales. This gives farmers an additional source of income in addition to their rubber and oil palm plantations. Anyone intere sted in square plates and round cups from areca sheaths can contact Ms. Anchalee Barameerungruang at tel. 093-7458652 every day. Source: Thai News Agency
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