Govt Probes Foreign Money In Paddies

[george]

AGRICULTURE

DSI probes foreign money in paddies

Farmers from Nakhon Pathom will submit evidence to the Department of Special Investigation today to support claims foreign investors are illegally acquiring paddy fields through Thai nominees.

The move comes as the DSI looks into a report that foreigners are buying and leasing land for rice farming with the help of nominee companies.

The action violates the law which allows only joint ventures between foreigners and Thais to operate farm businesses.

But the report needs to be examined to answer questions over the alleged land acquisitions which have been deemed as causing "enormous damage" to farmers, Thai Farmers Association president Prasit Boonchoey said.

A DSI source said the agency had sent an investigative team to Ayutthaya, a rice-growing province in the Central Plain.

The DSI expected its investigation to take about two weeks. If it uncovered illegal acts, the agency would inspect paddy fields in other regions, he said.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said he had asked the Commerce Ministry to look into the allegations. Farming is reserved for Thais only, he said.

Meanwhile, rice farmers in Ayutthaya's Bang Ban, Sena and Phak Hai districts have decided to leave their farms after their attempts to ask a landlord to extend their leases failed, said Somjit Jankaew, 55, a farmer from Lat Bua Luang district.

They are among 80 farmers whose rental period expired after being allowed to farm on more than 5,000 rai, owned by a private company, for more than 10 years.

A company representative said it had no policy to renew the farming period but would help farmers by allowing them two years to leave, one year more than required by law, Mr Somjit said.

"The farmers are now divided," Mr Somjit said. "One still goes ahead with their request while the other gives up."

Those who are still confident about their effort to stay on the land have asked Ayutthaya's state attorney office to help them negotiate with the company to give them four more years of farming.

If the company does not change its policy, the farmers would leave, Mr Somjit said. Many rice farmers enter into "unofficial contracts", requiring no documents, with landlords.

-- Bangkok Post 2009-08-06

Bangkok Post Editorial:

Worse worries than land grab

All of a sudden officials from the departments of Special Investigation, Royal Irrigation and Business Development are scouring the farmlands and poring over documents in a search for foreign investors who, in cahoots with Thai nominees, have supposedly snapped up large swathes of farmland in Thailand to produce rice and other staples to ensure their own future food supplies.

Since rumours about land grabbing by multinationals through their Thai nominees have been circulating for some time, causing serious concern among farmer groups, this investigation by the authorities should shed some light on the disturbing issue: whether it has any basis in fact at all, or is it just a rumour? Whatever the probe's outcome, the issue which has become a global phenomenon, is worthy of serious discussion so that a proper food security policy may be adopted.

The craze for snapping up farmland in under-developed countries, especially in Africa and Latin America, by wealthy nations or multinationals to ensure food safety for their own populations, is on the rise, in light of last year's food crisis characterised by the shortage of staples due to crop failures in several producing countries and skyrocketing prices.

It has been reported that a group of Saudi investors, including the Islamic Development Bank, is to launch later this year a seven-year plan worth US$1 billion in several African countries to produce seven million tonnes of rice for seven years, for supply to the Middle East region. Also, the United Arab Emirates is due to sign a deal with Egypt to plant 42,000 hectares of land with wheat and corn.

While deprecating the alleged land grab by foreign investors, Thailand is, ironically, embracing the same practice of so-called agri-colonialism.

Taking advantage of the lax restrictions and cheap labour in neighbouring countries like Cambodia and Laos, Thai agro-industry corporations have acquired large swathes of farmland to cultivate rice, corn and other staples for export.

Supplies of corn and tapioca harvested from these countries were reported to have been smuggled into Thailand by unscrupulous traders and sold to the government as local produce at govt-guaranteed prices.

Since rice farming is a protected occupation exclusively reserved for Thai nationals, foreign investors are, by law, not permitted to engage in this activity.

The sad reality is that most Thai farmers are living in poverty, are heavily in debt and always the net losers, bumper harvests notwithstanding. The real beneficiaries from rice cultivation are always the middlemen and exporters.

How to reverse this trend so that Thai farmers can get a fairer share of the pie instead of these middlemen and exporters, should take priority over other issues, including this fear of land-grabbing by foreign investors which stems primarily from a xenophobic attitude.

Also, how to make our farmers increase their productivity and gain easy access to funding through proper channels without going to loan sharks, is another immediate concern that has yet to be properly addressed.

Land grabbing may pose a threat to future food security, for it may deprive local consumers who must be given priority in times of food shortages. But this problem can be tackled simply by imposing an export ban.

A much greater threat is the increasing loss of fertile, arable land through unregulated and widespread misuse of the land for purposes other than farming. What are the authorities doing about that?

-- Bangkok Post 2009-08-06