The future of a state project to revive rice farming in the deep South is up in the air after a gun attack in Pattani on Friday killed two farmers participating in the project and injured 10 others also involved with the programme.
Saneh Khunnen, 28, and Ekkarin Homchoey, 26, both from Sing Buri province, were shot and killed after gunmen opened fire on a convoy of farmers in Yaring district's tambon Bo Loy on Friday evening.
Ten other farmers were also injured.
One of them, identified as Thanom Khamtrue, is in a serious condition and has been transferred to Prince Of Songkla University Hospital in Hat Yai.
They were among 20 farmers who arrived in Pattani from Sing Buri on Jan 23 on an all expenses paid project to restore rice farming in abandoned fields in the deep South.
Under the programme, funded by the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre (SBPAC), farmers from Central Plains provinces, including Suphan Buri and Sing Buri, are brought in to teach southern residents how to grow high quality, high-yield rice.
Some residents had abandoned their rice fields to plant rubber, which they felt was more lucrative, on other parcels of land.
Yaring is a pilot district for the programme as a large number of residents farm rice and the area is mostly irrigated.
The SBPAC sought the assistance of the Suphan Buri-based Buffalo Village, a privately-run organisation to conserve buffalos and promote rice farming, to recruit the farmers.
The programme was launched this year. Southern rice farmers were also taken to Suphan Buri and other provinces to observe rice-growing techniques.
After Friday's killings, many of the injured Sing Buri farmers said they would return home immediately after they are discharged from hospital.
Relatives of some of the farmers who flew in to Pattani Saturday say they would take them home once they've recovered.
Apart from Mr Thanom being treated in Hat Yai, three other farmers remain in the intensive care unit at a Pattani hospital.
They are Narong Pleeyaem, 26, Suriya Pleeyaem, 25 and Supakorn Chaijumpa, 15. All are from Sing Buri's Khai Bang Rachan district and are related.
Three other farmers, Jakkrit Umjin, 23, Prasert Wongsanong, 29, and Charan Kanpai, 17, are recuperating at the Pattani hospital.
Another three - Yupin Kongdoen, 26, Nurutti Kanpai, 28, and Yupai Kanpai, 27 - have been discharged.
Mr Charan said the programme was intended to foster ties among the people and to encourage southern farmers to return to growing rice.
He said he saw massive opportunities for rice farming in the more than 30,000 rai of abandoned land across Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, according to a Buffalo Village estimate.
The programme is in its infancy, but Mr Charan said: "Everything was going so well until we were shot on the way back to our accommodation." He said he was one of the few who wanted to stay on to finish the programme.
But it is not clear how that would be possible in the aftermath of the shootings, especially now that the team has lost Saneh, one of the most skilled tractor drivers in the group.
"We had been delegated specific tasks to do. It's going to be rather hard to work when we don't have enough of us left," Mr Charan said.
Police are hunting the gunmen.
A source in the programme said the team of farmers had been provided with a security escort while working, but were unaccompanied at the time of the attack.