Govt hits back over slump in agricultural prices

By WICHIT CHAITRONG 
THE NATION 

 

File photo: Government Spokesman Maj-General Sansern Kaewkamnerd.

 

GOVERNMENT Spokesman Maj-General Sansern Kaewkamnerd has rebuked political critics who have said the junta has failed to address falling agricultural prices, saying they wanted to give people a false impression that the government was doing nothing to support farmers.

“Politicians just want to create news in the media and sway public opinion that the government does nothing, while Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha has ordered government spokespeople to inform people about assistance measures,” Sansern said yesterday.

 

His comments came after politicians proposed that the government support rice farmers, because prices for their crops had fallen during the harvest season. They suggested the introduction of a minimum income guarantee scheme that would compensate farmers for the difference between market and reference prices.

 

They also called on the government to provide financial support for farmers who delay selling their rice during the harvest season, when prices are often lower.

 

Sansern said the Cabinet in September had put in place measures to support rice farmers for the 2017-18 harvest season. The government also assigned the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives to provide soft loans to farmers who wanted to delay selling their rice, he added. Farmers are eligible for loans of up to 90 per cent of their crops’ value.

 

The project, which began on November 1 this year, will run until December 30, 2018.

 

The government had also given out handouts of Bt1,200 per rai, with a limit of 10 rai per rice field, to help farmers improve rice quality, and Bt1,500 per tonne for rice kept in stockpiles, Sansern said.

 

He added that the government had assigned state-owned banks to provide soft loans to cooperatives or community enterprises that processed rice into food products. It also provided a 3-per-cent interest rate subsidy for rice mills that bought paddy from farmers and stockpiled it for two to six months.

 

The cost of the rice assistance package was about Bt87.2 billion and the government aimed to take 12.5 million tonnes of white rice from the market, out of total white rice production of 26-27 million tonnes.

 

To shore up rice and rubber prices, the government had also looked at long-term measures, including information technology assistance to support the farm sector, promoting processing goods, supporting mechanical farming, marketing farm products, promoting financial access and improving farmer welfare, he added.

 

Meanwhile, Luck Wajananawat, the newly appointed deputy minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives, told The Nation that the government’s policy was to let market mechanisms determine the price of farm products, as previous minimum-income guarantees and rice-pledging schemes had cost too much and resulted in wasted tax money.

 

Poor farmers would be supported by the welfare card project implemented by Finance Ministry, Luck said. Currently, 3.96 million farmers whose annual incomes are no more than Bt100,000 get support from the project.

 

“Long-term projects, such as encouraging farmers to form cooperatives and community enterprises, may take time before they can deliver desirable outcomes, but these will be sustainable and beneficial to farmers,” Luck added.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/politics/30333266

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-12-06

"slump in agricultural prices" ?, except in markets and shops,

The price of Rice,Fruit and Vegetables,has not fallen at all,

the middlemen and retailers must be raking it in.

regards worgeordie

A slightly-weaker Baht might help raise export-prices, in Baht-terms, for agricultural-products ?

 

And the final selling-off of the last of the excessive stockpiles of aged-rice, earlier this year, can only have helped move things back towards normal.

 

Then again, one can see why prices might often fall back during the harvest, when Supply peaks.  Especially if previous governments have encouraged over-production, or lower grades of produce.  In my own village, there are many plots of land which haven't been planted, since the end of the short-term bonanza.

 

Lastly any move towards co-operatives can IMO only be good for agriculture, giving the producers more control & purchasing-power, for their members.  But as the OP says, its a long-term thing, not a quick-fix.

Rice Bt6 a kilo. Production at a loss.

Grow coconuts or is it bananas?

4 hours ago, webfact said:

saying they wanted to give people a false impression that the government was doing nothing to support farmers.

The impression is not false.  But as mentioned above, why haven't domestic prices fallen ?  Many of Thailand's neighbors buy Thai food stuffs.  Why not promote more consumption at home and with the neighbors ?   Instead of giving the farmers subsidies, promote trade. 

With the report out about the level of pollutants in Thai home grown vegetables, I would think that the Government would be addressing that , using some of its vast Foreign reserves and spend money improving the farming industry, rather than papering over the cracks.

I will not under any circumstance buy Thai locally grown vegetables , I like my health a lot more than have more money for beer.

Falling Thai prices , not surprised when most of it could make you ill; .

To seek the truth about the matter, Maj Gen Sansern should talk face to face with the farmers rather than stand behind the podium in Government House and hit back. 

Same old same old. You get less than halfway down the article before someone suggests lending poor people money they can't afford to pay back!

 

Get some experts over from the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool to advise farmers how to start and run a co-operative.

Edited December 6, 20178 yr by VocalNeal

29 minutes ago, VocalNeal said:

Same old same old. You get less than halfway down the article before someone suggests lending poor people money they can't afford to pay back!

 

If it's good enough for the banks...

Providing loans to farmers when they delay selling their rice due to low prices during the harvest season. Yeah, I'm living here and witnessing this happening - farmers holding on till prices rise to sell.

 

But <deleted> is wrong with them except that they are greedy as hell. Still thinking about earning money from loans instead of genuinely helping the farmers. The loans better not change interests than. What makes them think less-educated farmers manage their money well and know about default on loans etc. they'll just be more in debt!!!

 

hope karma strikes them with unaccountable number of loan defaults with no hope of recovery!!

Edited December 6, 20178 yr by KhunBN

2 hours ago, Eric Loh said:

To seek the truth about the matter, Maj Gen Sansern should talk face to face with the farmers rather than stand behind the podium in Government House and hit back. 

As if that will ever happen, talking to the poor downtrodden peons, beneath his station in life, to even admit they would understand

There must be a long term solution to this problem and somebody qualified to find and capable of implementing it.

 

 

Despite all this and the comments from posters, there are still some TV folk who maintain that the Thai economy is doing very nicely thank you.

 

When what it's really doing is only delaying the inevitable crash. The fundamentals are not so rosy and guess who is going to take the blame?

31 minutes ago, Sid Celery said:

Despite all this and the comments from posters, there are still some TV folk who maintain that the Thai economy is doing very nicely thank you.

 

Looks to be growing well-enough  ...

 

https://tradingeconomics.com/thailand/gdp-growth-annual

 

31 minutes ago, Sid Celery said:

 

When what it's really doing is only delaying the inevitable crash. The fundamentals are not so rosy and guess who is going to take the blame?

 

Still looks stronger than the USA or Europe, to me  ...  do you have some statistics on those fundamentals you refer to ?

Thy have enormous foreign currency reserves, which they of course are not spending on their own people but are propping up the baht with . That is why it looks so good.

I didn't realise that it was the Bank of Thailand's job, to use their reserves to fund government spending, when the government's long-running budget-deficit means they can't afford populist handouts, like in the 'good old days' ?

 

Perhaps a sign that the junta doesn't want to stand for the next election, as often claimed.

 

Or more-likely that they learned well the lessons of the 1997-crash, which explains how Thailand avoided most of the consequences, of the 2007-8 global-crash ?

9 hours ago, webfact said:

 . . . . while Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha has ordered government spokespeople to inform people about ASSISTANCE MEASURES,” Sansern said yesterday.

Phew . . . I feel a sight better for knowing that. AND THOSE ASSSISTANCE MEASURES . . . as we all know now, they're like all the other meaningless measures - AKA smokescreens - that these soldier boys love pulling out of the hat . . . they're absolutely worthless.

9 hours ago, webfact said:

saying they wanted to give people a false impression that the government was doing nothing to support farmers.

Actually being generous with such remarks instead of giving people the impression that the government was FAILING farmers. Better to be accused of doing nothing.

Prayut just replaced all his Agricultural appointments in the reshuffle. Now that's doing something! But it was in response to Prayut's admission that there was a real failure of agricultural policies.

One example of shops profiteering - Purple aubergines in Royal project shop 25 baht. Same packs, from the Royal project, being sold in Big C and Makro for 72 baht .......