Farmers seeking govt aid on rise

By The Nation

 

 

MORE and more farmers are coming forward to register for government subsidies as well as an occupation-shifting allowance this year, Office of Agricultural Economics (OAE) secretary-general Jariya Sutthichaiya said yesterday.

 

The official said these figures have been on the rise for the past couple of years. For instance, in 2018, 4.11 million rice farmers registered, a hike from 4.04 million in 2017; 323,620 maize farmers registered compared to 286,138 the year before; 297,968 oil palm-growers versus 153,335 in 2017; and 993,500 rubber growers versus 962,765. However, the number of tapioca growers registering for subsidy last year dropped to 403,985 from 443,461 the year before, she added.

 

Jariya said the number |of farmers registered as of May 14 stood at 7.9 million nationwide.

 

This number can be divided into 4.49 million crop growers; 917,607 livestock farmers; 67,487 fishermen; 1.9 million farmers who grow crops as well as raise livestock; 270,594 crop and fish farmers; 18,894 animal breeders, and 200,835 households that do both farming as well as breeding animals, she said. 

 

Among the agriculturists registering, 18.20 per cent were under 14 years old, 67.61 per cent were working age people (15-64 years old), and 14.19 per cent were over 65, she said.

 

The OAE report on farmer households’ debt burden in 2018 showed that each family shouldered debts of approximately Bt150,636 – a 22-per-cent increase from the Bt123,454 per household cited at the end of 2017. 

 

Each family’s total cash income stood at approximately Bt370,040 per family, of which Bt172,667 is earned outside the agricultural sector, marking a 19.64 per cent increase from 2017’s figure of Bt309,278.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30370852

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-06-11

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If this keeps, balancing the budget as discussed recently by various members of the government will become a lot harder. However it will make the agriculture ministership more valuable desirable.

 

6 hours ago, webfact said:

The OAE report on farmer households’ debt burden in 2018 showed that each family shouldered debts of approximately Bt150,636 – a 22-per-cent increase from the Bt123,454 per household cited at the end of 2017. 

Hardly see why farmers should be much different to any other Thai living beyond their budget

Elected representatives will be alarm with rising woes of their support base but will

not perturb the non elected assembly men in last couple of years.  Will be same with the appointed senators with no accountability to their people. Ditto the Prime Minister. 

18.2% were under 14 years old......... really? Divide your land and double your subsidies!