Low grade rice banned from rice pledging scheme

BANGKOK, 21 March 2013 (NNT) - The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives has announced that 18 low quality rice strains will not be accepted in the government’s rice pledging scheme. To improve the overall quality of Thai rice, new types of rice seeds will be used nationwide.

Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Yukol Limlaemthong said the ministry had banned the 18 strains of low quality rice from the rice pledging program in an effort to motivate farmers to use better rice strains accredited by the Rice Department. The department also imposed other measures to assure that high quality rice would be produced for the market. It proposed that Thailand use new kinds of rice seeds within three years, starting in 2014.

The National Rice Policy Committee on 11 March 2013 approved the second round of the rice pledging scheme for the 2012/2013 crop year or the 2012 dry season rice. The pledging price of 100% unmilled rice is 15,000 baht a ton.


-- NNT 2013-03-21

high grade/low grade rice all rots the same way, when you buy it and store it in a warehouse with no one to sell it to

low grade rice to be banned from the pledging scheme,does that mean this years crop.

Some kinds of rice are more-equal than others, it seems.

Hang on isn't this putting restrictions on the rice subsidy scam.?....

So which low grade types were these. Where are they grown. Nice Management of the agribusiness huh?

To clarify his announcement he went on to say "Low grade rice includes any strain grown in the South, Newin's Buri Ram stronghold, or anywhere else that failed to elect a PTP MP".

So what are we going to do with the low grade rice? dump it in our biggest garbage can, the sea, and contribute to the deterioration of our reefs ? or are we going to distribute it amongst the poor? perhaps we can sell it to the ferang, as a new strain of rice? After all we seem to think that they are so gullible.

Hope the low-grade rice doesn't come from Cambodia, one wouldn't want to upset the eternal friend, as that might have a knock-on effect on the oil-deal.

does this mean only high grade rice available,so that will mean higher prices you bet.

this reminds me of what they done in the uk.with our stable food potato's, hoaded them untill the price went sky high then king edwards and maris pipers were out of reach for every day use.so they ended up importing from everywhere,farmers no longer could make it pay unless the grew the top spuds,fish and chip shops went to the wall.

so the 5bht bag of rice with your take away will soon be 10bht

one word comes to mind " montsanto " big chance they give a fab bonus to the officials to put their gmo crap on top of the high grade list

Important details missing till now it would seem:

- what are the 'low grade' rice strains
- where are those currently grown / used
- how does this effect the poor farmers if at all

Watch those goal posts move..........Wonder who will be selling the new seeds??

one word comes to mind " montsanto " big chance they give a fab bonus to the officials to put their gmo crap on top of the high grade list

so far found a few cables on gmo corn they want so grow in chiangmai nothing on rice yet , we keep looking ( montsanto is established in phitsanoluk a long time allready )

here is one http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/1887-cn.htm

Edited March 21, 201313 yr by retell

So how is this type of rice bagged, labelled and sold?

Generic Thai rice? Because, if so, they have been ripping off the market for donkeys years.

So if i read this right, the Thai's get to eat the cr@p quality rice whilst the government sits on the (rotting) pile of high quality rice whilst skimming off as much as they can?

Lower grade rice “yellow” rice has a shorter growing season and is cultivated in the off season when hom mali is not being grown. This means poorer farmers who cannot afford to own land and have to rent will grow this. Once the hom mali season starts the land owners don’t like to rent as they can grow the higher value rice themselves.

It would be interesting to know what percentage of the whole scheme this affects.

Seems as if this is a move designed to limit the flow of rice into the warehouses.

Who is going to decide what the criteria is for this grade of rice and where will it be classified, at the warehouse or in the field ?

On our farm we have a small area of ground that is not overly fertile thus the rice we grow on that area is processed at home and used as livestock feed.

The greater majority of our rice is regarded as good quality much the same as our neighbouring farmers rice is too.

Methinks that this is a move designed to limit the flow of rice into the warehouses thus cutting the cost, looks like the farmring community are yet again picking up the bill for this scam scheme.

As my old father and mum in law say,

'' Come election time the candidates give us 500 baht of their money but after they are elected we don't see them again and we end up paying back 5,000 of our money.''

I must be the only person in Thailand who eats imported rice. I only touch Native American wild rice. Nothing else will do. All these Asian varieties do not compare.

What amazes me is that they persist in growing 18 so called "low quality strains" of rice.

Presumably this is completely for the domestic market? But by now, shouldn't the damn agricultural ministry have encouraged farmers to move to higher value better quality stuff? It's not as though they haven't been growing rice for millenia and worked out which strains are better than others.

So which low grade types were these. Where are they grown. Nice Management of the agribusiness huh?

I don't think the quality of the rice has any thing to do with it.

It is more a matter of who the grower is and can be used as a bargaining chip in buying votes.

I must be the only person in Thailand who eats imported rice. I only touch Native American wild rice. Nothing else will do. All these Asian varieties do not compare.

i suspect your barding must be made out of american wild as well

So which low grade types were these. Where are they grown. Nice Management of the agribusiness huh?

I don't think the quality of the rice has any thing to do with it.

It is more a matter of who the grower is and can be used as a bargaining chip in buying votes.

Might well be, but how can it be that they are still producing 18 low quality strains of rice, unless it is for pigfeed or purely domestic consumption sold at a low price. In which case, of course, it should never have been placed into the pledge anyway, or certainly not at the same level of subsidy as the better quality products.

People may bemoan how the CAP worked, but all the different varieties of a certain type of product had different levels of subsidy to reflect lower yields by variety.

It would seem that the aura of quality surrounding Thai rice is dissipating at an alarming rate. Soon it will be regarded as nothing more than bog standard.

It would seem that the aura of quality surrounding Thai rice is dissipating at an alarming rate. Soon it will be regarded as nothing more than bog standard.

Look at the overall yield of hom mali in the total crop. Most of it already is "bog" standard.

Thais with some sort of authority are very good at being selective, subjective and arbitrary.

This move reeks of giving the Government the ability to stem the flow of rice in...and money out...when it suits them, or to be selective on which rice and farmers (and provinces) measures up and which do not, without having to give any reasons or be accountable.

What does a farmer do when it is determined that his crop is below the standard (when it isn't) and he has nowhere to sell it because the pantry is already full, the middlemen are already fat and happy and the Government has killed the market for his Thai rice?

Whilst the rice-pledging scheme was a disaster from the beginning, this decision is spineless and weak. Yingluck should be ashamed.

Thais with some sort of authority are very good at being selective, subjective and arbitrary.

This move reeks of giving the Government the ability to stem the flow of rice in...and money out...when it suits them, or to be selective on which rice and farmers (and provinces) measures up and which do not, without having to give any reasons or be accountable.

What does a farmer do when it is determined that his crop is below the standard (when it isn't) and he has nowhere to sell it because the pantry is already full, the middlemen are already fat and happy and the Government has killed the market for his Thai rice?

Whilst the rice-pledging scheme was a disaster from the beginning, this decision is spineless and weak. Yingluck should be ashamed.

In the domestic market, the Agriculture ministry will know which varieties are grown where. Just go to a dozen street side vendors and you will receive a dozen different tasting, sized and textured types of rice. To the uninitiated, it looks like rice, but you can be sure that the buyers know all the different types, prices and saleability. Of course, what they should do is bring all of them into the pledging system at different values depending on output and quality.

one word comes to mind " montsanto " big chance they give a fab bonus to the officials to put their gmo crap on top of the high grade list

If it is Monsanto we are all doomed!

<snip>

As my old father and mum in law say,

'' Come election time the candidates give us 500 baht of their money but after they are elected we don't see them again and we end up paying back 5,000 of our money.''

Can't you sit down then and persuade your father and mum in law they have to stop taking the 500 baht. Nothing is ever given for free, especially in this country. Then your father and mum in law can tell their relatives, then they can all tell their.... oh never mind, in my dreams.