Rising Costs Offset Gains Of Rice Price-Pledging

[OzMick]

Nisa

What a typical corporate mentality.

Pack the bags, sell the farm, move to the city and work in a factory?

Maybe the government could offer these farmers some education in modern crop management. Most rice farmers only grow rice. (one of the most soil exhaustive crops) Thats all they know, with some proper education in crop rotation, they could easily increase yields, and reduce the amount of chemicals they need to buy, making family farming a profitable business.

This pledging scam is only further hurting the farmer in that respect. Take 5 or 10% of the money from this govt scam and put it in eduction on growing different crops, and research on higher yielding crop seed and many of the poor farmers will be spared from its/your corporate mentality.

Given the relative outputs of neighbouring countries, it seem the farmers there have done that without government assistance or subsidies.

Weaning can be a traumatic experience, especially when you're over 30.

[billd766]

Nisa

What else do you think they can do?

They could become a politician as there is a lot of money in that.

The 2 problems with that is

a) most are too honest

they would need a degree from a university.

They can't get a degree as they don't have the education skills due to the abysmally inadequate Thai Education system and they can't buy one as they are too poor.

Do you have any more "bright ideas"?

[osiboy]

The real red flag for this scam, look at the amount of money the whole process is costing the government (from farmer thru drying, sacking, transport, storage, treatment, commissions, product loss, etc) vs the world market price of rice..

There have been some observations that the budget allowed/spent vs amount of rice reported in storage more than doubles the 15 or 20 baht being bandied around. This type of scam is being conducted in other farming produce. rubber, some fruits, pork, etc. Then look at the school tablet, flood relief payments, flood prevention projects, fuel price at pump, etc.

Corruption/theft has gone from a deep cut concern, to a major life supporting loss of blood, over the past few months.

The figures are easy to see. They deduct 30% from the farmer up front, but then assume they have paid 15k for the rice, reduce the volume by yield and moisture loss, and you arrive at the prices in the market, minus the profit.

Problem us they have already penalized the farmer for moisture and yield once already. The middlemen are having their cake and eating it.

The farmer is subsidizing the millers processing yield. What an utter con for the farmer.

true, but nothing new,...thats always been the way , way before this pledging scheme was introduced. Edited November 12, 2012 by osiboy

[osiboy]

The Thais never seem to learn but the hard way. The handwriting was already on the wall long ago.

Free markets dictate the price in all world markets, they failed to see the forest thru the trees.

dont know where your from jerrysteve , but the EU is not much different i know in the uk that farmers are given all sorts of grants and paid more than the animal or crop is worth,...al you have to do is prove your land is a farm by growing a harvest and keeping some livestock for your 1st grant which i know is a nice lump but cant remember how much, £20,000 plus so much per acre i believe,....anyways , its giving farmers money over the market prices,...same same

[Thai at Heart]

The Thais never seem to learn but the hard way. The handwriting was already on the wall long ago.

Free markets dictate the price in all world markets, they failed to see the forest thru the trees.

dont know where your from jerrysteve , but the EU is not much different i know in the uk that farmers are given all sorts of grants and paid more than the animal or crop is worth,...al you have to do is prove your land is a farm by growing a harvest and keeping some livestock for your 1st grant which i know is a nice lump but cant remember how much, £20,000 plus so much per acre i believe,....anyways , its giving farmers money over the market prices,...same same

The usa subsidizes its farmers plenty.

[Nisa]

Nisa

What a typical corporate mentality.

Pack the bags, sell the farm, move to the city and work in a factory?

Maybe the government could offer these farmers some education in modern crop management. Most rice farmers only grow rice. (one of the most soil exhaustive crops) Thats all they know, with some proper education in crop rotation, they could easily increase yields, and reduce the amount of chemicals they need to buy, making family farming a profitable business.

This pledging scam is only further hurting the farmer in that respect. Take 5 or 10% of the money from this govt scam and put it in eduction on growing different crops, and research on higher yielding crop seed and many of the poor farmers will be spared from its/your corporate mentality.

Given the relative outputs of neighbouring countries, it seem the farmers there have done that without government assistance or subsidies.

Weaning can be a traumatic experience, especially when you're over 30.

The other countries are still poorer. There are few industrialized nations where the family farmers is doing well. No different than the big chain stores putting the mom and pop stores out of business. When an area has grown enough that it can support a big hardware superstore then they are going to come in and be able to deliver cheaper prices, larger inventories and so on making it near impossible for the Pop's hardware store to stay open as more and more customers are willing to forgo the personal experience for the convenience and savings of a large store. No different with farming as the big can grow and harvest more cheaper and more quickly and better able to hedge their crops and income.

[Nisa]

Nisa

What else do you think they can do?

They could become a politician as there is a lot of money in that.

The 2 problems with that is

a) most are too honest

they would need a degree from a university.

They can't get a degree as they don't have the education skills due to the abysmally inadequate Thai Education system and they can't buy one as they are too poor.

Do you have any more "bright ideas"?

If they are losing money then they can simply not do anything and they would be better off. If they are losing money then sweeping the street would pay more. If they are losing money then selling the farm and becoming a worker on that farm would pay more. They could also move and get closer to a city where jobs are abundant as most industrialized nation's citizens do. If they really are incapable of doing anything else or learning any other skill (such as pushing a broom) as you suggest but can only grow rice which only causes them to lose more money then they either need to accept they will be extremely poor or go live at the temple or they can stay home and starve to death. Bottom line is you can't have a business that continues to lose money even with huge government subsidies and sooner or later you need to move on and stop putting yourself further in debt. But I suspect these people (business owners) are not as stupid as you claim and they can find other work, grow other crops and believe it or not, even learn something new. Yes, very sad to accept your business can not longer survive or have to sell your home or land but sometimes life isn't fair but it becomes a lot worse when you can't let go of something you know you should.

But I have no problem with socialism or even communism if that is the way Thailand wants to go but as long as it is a country of free enterprise for Thais then one needs to not be owning a business that loses money year after year even with huge government subsidies. It is just a reality.

Oh and one more bright idea ... many of them can sell or hand back to the bank the new ticked out pick up truck they bought with guaranteed loan money they received for farming equipment since they'd never use the truck for work.and risk scratching it up.

Edited November 15, 2012 by Nisa