By Max Constant

BANGKOK

Thailand’s main irrigation agency has warned that half the areas outside irrigated zones are facing a “crisis” as the worst drought in two decades grips the country, local media reported Sunday.

Thongplew Kongchan, the agency’s deputy chief, was quoted by the Bangkok Post as saying, “the drought crisis is clear in 152 districts of 42 provinces” out of 76.

The majority of the affected districts are located in the country’s north and northeast, a region that relies primarily on natural sources of water and minimally on irrigation systems, he added.

The rice-growing area of the central plain, the basin of the Chao Phraya river, is less affected because it relies on a string of canals to irrigate the region’s fields.

A telltale sign of the crisis can be seen in water levels dropping to less than 10 percent in Thailand’s largest dams.

The water level in the Ubolrattana dam in northeastern Khon Kaen province has decreased to the point where irrigation authorities have stopped any pumping to avoid causing structural damage.

In an attempt to ease the water shortage, the irrigation agency has asked rice-farmers to suspend planting the grain if their fields are not connected to the irrigation system -- a request mostly aimed at farmers of the north and the northeast.

Thailand’s official news agency NTT reported that some governors in the northeast have distributed pumping equipment to local farmers so they can tap into underground water sources.

Those most affected, however, are sugar cane farmers whose current crop was decimated by the drought and who fear that next year’s crop will also go to ruin.

With the production of sugar severely damaged, Thailand -- the world’s second largest exporter of the product -- will ship 20 percent less of the commodity this year compared to 2015.

Sugar refining factories are currently operating 25 percent below full capacity.

Despite higher sugar prices on the world market due to short supply, Thai farmers are severely hit by the shortage as some are unable to pay back the money they borrowed to fund their crop.

Shrimp and fish farms, which abound in the central plain north of capital Bangkok, have also been negatively impacted by drought conditions, with 200 closing down due to their seafood stock dying from heat.

Faced with severe drought stemming from the regional El Nino weather phenomenon, Thai authorities have been turning toward desperate solutions.

Among them has been the deployment of Royal cloud seeding planes, which disperse chemicals into clouds in the hope of inducing rainfall.

Thailand's highly revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 88, has been an ardent promoter of the technique and even been nicknamed the “Royal Rain-maker”.

Another method has been the pumping of water from Southeast Asia’s longest river, the Mekong.

Such initiatives have, however, provoked discontent among downstream countries -- particularly Vietnam, which is suffering from its worst drought in a century.