Government ready to help debt-ridden farmers and fishermen

[rooster59]

Government ready to help debt-ridden farmers and fishermen

Tanakorn Sangiam

 

 

BANGKOK (NNT) - Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister, Jurin Laksanawisit, has held a meeting with members of the Farmers Rehabilitation and Development Fund, the Thai Bankers’ Association and representatives of the agricultural sector to discuss assistance for 150,000 debt-ridden farmers.

 

The Deputy Government Spokeswoman, Dr. Ratchada Thanadirek, said the combined debt of the 150,000 farmers is around 54 billion baht. Deputy Prime Minister Jurin instructed the three sides to find a mutually satisfactory solution for restructuring the debt and blamed the issue on miscommunications and a lack of mutual understanding.

Conclusions reached by the three sides will be presented to the Farmers Rehabilitation and Development Fund on January 23 and then to the cabinet. The fund was tasked with redrafting its regulations on repurchasing land lost in the course of mortgaging, and to compile a list of its debtors divided by debt type as well as a rehabilitation plan for each individual. It will also negotiate a delay in processing the 1,340 farmers with the Thai Bankers’ Association.

 

At the parliament building on Kiakkai Road in Bangkok, a group looking to amend fishing laws handed the Speaker of the House of Representatives a letter calling for changes to the 2015 Royal Decree on Fishing, which after four years has resulted in inequalities in the fishing sector and has not met with the intentions of anglers. The Secretariat of the House of Representatives said today the proposal would be studied before being put to the legislature and any inaccuracies would be corrected first.

 

-- © Copyright NNT 2020-01-12

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[RichardColeman]

6 hours ago, rooster59 said:

to find a mutually satisfactory solution for restructuring the debt and blamed the issue on miscommunications and a lack of mutual understanding.

Probably the lack of understanding that debts have to be paid back at some point

[CGW]

8 hours ago, rooster59 said:

a group looking to amend fishing laws

Good to see this fine "government" is focusing on the important things to improve the quality of life for all! ????

I know of nobody who's life will be affected in any way by any changes in fishing laws, neither have I ever met a "Farmer" in Thailand who has any spare money, most are stony broke, the last group of people I would be considering loaning money too!

[legend49]

I thought Thai Buddhists avoid eating sacred cows. Never seen any eat beef.

[hotchilli]

9 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Government ready to help debt-ridden farmers and fishermen

Screw up their lives with 5 years of no economic policy to boost their products then say we'll give you cheap loans?

[cornishcarlos]

9 hours ago, rooster59 said:

has not met with the intentions of anglers

 

Anglers ??? 

 

More like piscatorial rapists !!

[Scot123]

1 hour ago, legend49 said:

I thought Thai Buddhists avoid eating sacred cows. Never seen any eat beef.

You are kidding. I know many this and been to lots of barbaque and some with just beef steaks. How many thais do you know? Have you ever been in Thailand as every mall is full of steak houses and you will find them in tesco and big c. The only only thing stops a Thai is price. 

[Denim]

11 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Government ready to help debt-ridden farmers and fishermen

 

With another eat shop spend promotion 

[Cake Monster]

Why is the Government trying to help these people ?

They have clearly demonstrated that they are incapable of handling Money, or running a Business.

Let them sink out of sight, and leave the remaining Business,s stronger going forward.

Its the way of the World.

[ThomasThBKK]

4 minutes ago, Cake Monster said:

Why is the Government trying to help these people ?

They have clearly demonstrated that they are incapable of handling Money, or running a Business.

Let them sink out of sight, and leave the remaining Business,s stronger going forward.

Its the way of the World.

But all those voters!!!

 

 

... It's literally vote buying, nothing else. I am not surprised.

[johng]

8 minutes ago, Cake Monster said:

Why is the Government trying to help these people ?

 

Because they are the majority of the population and depite best efforts still have a vote and so a small chance of throwing the "government" out of office...not that voting them out  will do much good as there will then be another  "coup"

[473geo]

17 minutes ago, Cake Monster said:

Why is the Government trying to help these people ?

They have clearly demonstrated that they are incapable of handling Money, or running a Business.

Let them sink out of sight, and leave the remaining Business,s stronger going forward.

Its the way of the World.

No it is not the way of the world - farmers are heavily subsidised in other countries - The Thai farmer is left behind

[ThomasThBKK]

1 minute ago, 473geo said:

No it is not the way of the world - farmers are heavily subsidised in other countries - The Thai farmer is left behind

The whole world should get rid of that bs practice.

They help no one and make everything worse, costa rica got rid of cattle subsidies and finally the forest destruction etc stopped. Way to go.

[473geo]

12 minutes ago, johng said:

Because they are the majority of the population and depite best efforts still have a vote and so a small chance of throwing the "government" out of office...not that voting them out  will do much good as there will then be another  "coup"

Rubbish - Thailand for years has adopted the self sufficiency model, to avoid mass migration to the metropolis and cities full of poor to support better to address the issues of the rural population

[473geo]

3 minutes ago, ThomasThBKK said:

The whole world should get rid of that bs practice.

They help no one and make everything worse, costa rica got rid of cattle subsidies and finally the forest destruction etc stopped. Way to go.

Yep the whole world stops farming and buys in produce to feed the population from..er...er..

[Vacuum]

47 minutes ago, Scot123 said:

Have you ever been in Thailand as every mall is full of steak houses and you will find them in tesco and big c. The only only thing stops a Thai is price. 

They'll also need a good set of teeth (if youre talking about Thai steaks).

[Thian]

4 hours ago, CGW said:

neither have I ever met a "Farmer" in Thailand who has any spare money

And how many farmers do you know who have large new pickup? And how many are addicted to alcohol/smoking?

 

My family grows sugarcane and they make good money with it.

[CGW]

1 minute ago, Thian said:

And how many farmers do you know who have large new pickup? And how many are addicted to alcohol/smoking?

 

My family grows sugarcane and they make good money with it.

I don't know any "Farmers" if you are using the term in a western manner, I know of a lot that farm land that has been in their families for a long time as it was deemed near worthless in value as all you could feasibly grow was rice once; or if you were very lucky, twice a year.

There are some that have debt, sorry a pick up truck, short term lease!

I wish your family well if they are making money from sugar cane, we have 17 Rai of it - pittance!

Off coarse their are exceptions, but they are in the minority from what I have seen.

[Janner1]

2 hours ago, Cake Monster said:

Why is the Government trying to help these people ?

They have clearly demonstrated that they are incapable of handling Money, or running a Business.

Let them sink out of sight, and leave the remaining Business,s stronger going forward.

Its the way of the World.

You obviously have no idea just how hard farming has been over the last few years with hot temperatures and very little rain to nourish crops

Just like any other business the farmers speculate every year that the rains will come at the right time and they will accumulate, but they are entirely at the mercy of weather patterns that are increasingly undermined by climate change.

So as you are so knowledgable with your own particular crystal ball you can tell these hard working farmers the best time to plow, plant, de-weed and borrow money to spread fertiliser on the ground and other crop management excersises.

Just remember that you will have to predict these good weather patterns at least 5 months in advance, Oh sorry I forgot you can do all of this with ease.

Three months ago these farmers borrowed money for fertiliser and spread it on the ground, believing that the rains would come but they did not, resulting in crop losses and unpaid debts.

Even with your great unbeatable knowledge of business practise, you would not be able to find your way out of that scenario without some government intervention.

Sadly this present government is more interested in war toys than building reservoirs to preserve water

[djayz]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: without farmers, there is no food.

 

Restructuring their debt and subsidizing their produce are two ways to tackle this problem.

In addition to this, reducing the prohibitively expensive and outragiously high import tax on machinery, which is considerably more efficient and effective than their current tools, and teaching them about modern farming techniques, animal husbandry, etc. would also help to improve their lot in life and thus their ability to repay loans, make a decent living amd make farming more attractive for the next generation.

 

 

[ThomasThBKK]

  

7 hours ago, 473geo said:

Yep the whole world stops farming and buys in produce to feed the population from..er...er..

Said no one ever, we talk about subsidizing of only this industry and nothing else. How does subsidizing non-sustainable businesses make sense? It's a car crash waiting to happen...

 

4 hours ago, djayz said:

I've said it before and I'll say it again: without farmers, there is no food.

 

Restructuring their debt and subsidizing their produce are two ways to tackle this problem.

In addition to this, reducing the prohibitively expensive and outragiously high import tax on machinery, which is considerably more efficient and effective than their current tools, and teaching them about modern farming techniques, animal husbandry, etc. would also help to improve their lot in life and thus their ability to repay loans, make a decent living amd make farming more attractive for the next generation.

 

 

 

Or we could just stop ripping them off?

 

They get nearly nothing for their goods, the big multinationals here ala tesco, CP and co buy them for cheap and make all the profit. Farmers make a loss and the gov subsidizes it while the middlemen buy their 500th lamborghini.

 

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/agriculture/you-may-pay-a-steep-price-but-does-the-farmer-make-any-money--62364

 

Look at the margins of parasitic middlemen for produce, that's the real issue, nothing of that goes to the farmer, yet they waste our taxes on subsidizing.

 

Of course farmers are at fault here too, instead of working together and selling their stuff directly they prefer to get ripped off, too lazy to educate themselves further and too lazy to come up with better farming techniques, they could also work together to get the machinery financed instead of everyone buying a new SUV...But who can blame them, education in thailand sucks so hard, and that's politicians fault and no one elses.

 

Instead of making this somehow sustainable, longterm... well i guess it would take a brain and non-greedy politicians, which we don't have, so nothing will ever change anyway.

[Prairieboy]

16 hours ago, legend49 said:

I thought Thai Buddhists avoid eating sacred cows. Never seen any eat beef.

Wrong religion - perhaps you have Buddhists and Hindus confused.

 

[BritManToo]

45 minutes ago, Prairieboy said:

Wrong religion - perhaps you have Buddhists and Hindus confused.

 

Buddha was Indian, Buddhists have a similar attitude to eating beef (Buddha doesn't approve), but not so strict, you can eat it if you really want to eat it.

[BritManToo]

15 hours ago, Cake Monster said:

Why is the Government trying to help these people ?

The country would be in deep trouble if nobody could buy food.

Or do you believe it's a product that magically appears in shops?

[ChipButty]

23 hours ago, Prairieboy said:

Wrong religion - perhaps you have Buddhists and Hindus confused.

 

Lots of Thai people dont eat beef

[Assurancetourix]

On 1/12/2020 at 5:05 AM, rooster59 said:

The Deputy Government Spokeswoman, Dr. Ratchada Thanadirek, said the combined debt of the 150,000 farmers is around 54 billion baht

I would like to know how many farmers there have bought materials only for "the face" without having any use of it?
In my village community, I know too many who bought tractors and sometimes even harvesters when they did not have a single baht in the bank.
When we go to Kubota's house on the edge of Route 22, there is a very large location where the dozens of vehicles piled up that the company recovered from indelicate farmers who did not pay their monthly payments.
When your eyes are bigger than your stomach .....

[Assurancetourix]

On 1/12/2020 at 6:10 PM, CGW said:

I wish your family well if they are making money from sugar cane, we have 17 Rai of it - pittance!

Off coarse their are exceptions, but they are in the minority from what I have seen.

Me too ..I wish ....

You must have many dozens  rais of sugar cane to make some money ;

 

When you have subtracted all labor and transportation costs, you really don't have much left;
and often you don't even earn anything at all.

but Thai people never do market research or profitability calculations.
For them, the sale price is their profit by forgetting all that they have spent upstream to obtain a result.

The sale price is the turnover, the profit, if there is one, it is this figure minus all the expenses related to the exploitation.

[Oziex1]

On 1/12/2020 at 3:36 PM, legend49 said:

I thought Thai Buddhists avoid eating sacred cows. Never seen any eat beef.

I think you might be referring to the Hindu's.