Farmer kills himself over debts
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- A farmer in Prachin Buri's Muang district committed suicide Thursday reportedly due to stress over outstanding debts and a mill only offering buy his rice at Bt5,500 per tonne.

Maung Prachin Buri Police Station's on-duty officer Pol Lt Kongpol Dechkhampul said 33-year-old Singkhon Tonsamruad was found hanging in front of the toilet in his house.

Initial investigation found that Singkhon had just reunited with his estranged wife Chawiwan and the couple had had an argument about the 10 tonnes of off-season rice that was being stored in a 10-wheel truck waiting to be sold.

Sinkhon had reportedly complained about the low price being offered by the rice mill, especially in view of the family's outstanding debts.

Police suspect that Singkhon had become too stressed while on his own at home and hence chosen to kill himself.


-- The Nation 2014-03-13

Horrible , condolances to his family and friends

bloody awful..rip fella..

If this is indeed the reason, it is more blood on the hands of the PM, her brother, and their government.

The sad part with this is that, there will be more poor farmers after this disastrous rice policy. And YS intention was always to help the farmer. Intention is nice, like the intention to ride on a unicorn, but reality is that YS is never willing to live in the real world. Is it because she never understood what is it to be poor? Again using the plight of the needy to make personal gains.

Terrible and RIP. So young too.

It sounds like the miller shafted him with a price of 5500 baht. I hope this is not going to be a trend by the millers to keep there profit margins up (post rice scheme failure) at the expense of the farmers.

Lets hope this is the last death at the hands of the PTP failed scheme.

Awful news, but with the ever increasing debt burdens placed on farmers there are likely to be more of these. Very sad.

lived in issan for 4 years..not once did the rice sell make a profit...to many costs..all you do is spend out.and get back the same or less than the costs

rice for eating and seeds for next planting...otherwise dont bother growing it for profit

sad :-( these suicide is directly connect to the rice programme, no one can deny on it.

anyone could remember the count of farmer suicide - I count till 13 then lose ? send these names to the person-in-charge.

lived in issan for 4 years..not once did the rice sell make a profit...to many costs..all you do is spend out.and get back the same or less than the costs

rice for eating and seeds for next planting...otherwise dont bother growing it for profit

I agree, my lot stopped planting last year.

Said no profit, now some mug rents the land, so at least they get the rent as income.

Rice growing is not worthwhile, plant something else or sell the land, which strangely, is at an all time high.

Thailand is changing from an agricultural society to an industrial society, every time this happens the small farmers are forced out. It's not the fault of the government, it's the way developing countries work.

lived in issan for 4 years..not once did the rice sell make a profit...to many costs..all you do is spend out.and get back the same or less than the costs

rice for eating and seeds for next planting...otherwise dont bother growing it for profit

I believe this is right, I even think it's the 1st car bonus that let them kill them self .... they want only more and more and the banks alow them to make the debts... but one day it becomes to high for the bank, and to much for the farmer .

RIP my dear farmer.

How many people must die for the Shin Dynasty? They are making money on the backs of the farmers. This is the thanks you get for supporting the Dynasty. They are worse than J.R. any day.

5,500 a tonne is a complete rip off. These prices should be displayed on the internet for all to see very day. That is a criminally low figure

Yingluck, Thaksin his death is your fault and your responsibilty

If this is indeed the reason, it is more blood on the hands of the PM, her brother, and their government.

I fail to see how she can be blamed, when it was the Miller who was dropping the price to 5,000 baht per tonne, this is so sad indeed, it sounds like he wasn't part of the rice scam if he stored his rice locally.

As harsh as this sounds, but when you have so much rice to start shifting, that Price is not going to get much better than 8000-9000 baht per tonne, if or when the Government cesases, then the peoples council are still going to have to shift it, and they're not going to be able to meet the agreed price either, so many more farmers are going to be given the golden rivet!!

Debts easy to get em , as a thai go to buy a car get contract that have you pay 10.000 a month , got income 6000 for tge bank no oroblem

sent from my windmill using ganja smoke-signals

Inflammatory posts and replies have been removed. Off topic posts have been removed as well. This is not a comparison of suicide rates in the USA or UK.

rice was 12 tb a kilo...nows it 5 tb a kilo..take it or leave it the millers are saying...that is going to hurt big time...tank of fuel for motorbike will be 20 kilo of rice..

5,500 a tonne is a complete rip off. These prices should be displayed on the internet for all to see very day. That is a criminally low figure

Perhaps the rice miller was kicking a man when he was down

lived in issan for 4 years..not once did the rice sell make a profit...to many costs..all you do is spend out.and get back the same or less than the costs

rice for eating and seeds for next planting...otherwise dont bother growing it for profit

I believe this is right, I even think it's the 1st car bonus that let them kill them self .... they want only more and more and the banks alow them to make the debts... but one day it becomes to high for the bank, and to much for the farmer .

RIP my dear farmer.

in issan every one wants a car..never mind how to pay for it...so loosing face when it goes back..hurts big time.

come on ..1 million bhat truck on salary of less then 60000..a year...how stupid is that...

lived in issan for 4 years..not once did the rice sell make a profit...to many costs..all you do is spend out.and get back the same or less than the costs

rice for eating and seeds for next planting...otherwise dont bother growing it for profit

Maenwhile, somehow, Thailand exports 10mn tonnes of the stuff, and a very select few exporters revel in thei billions in Bangkok.

The middle men and exporters are killing this country. Thaksins scheme is a blow out, but the system before was a disgrace too.

no figures on any exports...so some one may get very rich

The Thai rice has been stored in a truck all this time, waiting for the price to move up. Stored in a truck.

Isn't it 8mt maximum on a standard truck?

84 farmers committed suicide in the UK in the two years under this academic study:

http://cebmh.warne.ox.ac.uk/csr/resfarmers.html

Not seeking to whitewash the obviously <deleted> (flawed? ) Rice Pledging Scheme - just saying its a high suicide-risk occupation worldwide.

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The sad part with this is that, there will be more poor farmers after this disastrous rice policy. And YS intention was always to help the farmer. Intention is nice, like the intention to ride on a unicorn, but reality is that YS is never willing to live in the real world. Is it because she never understood what is it to be poor? Again using the plight of the needy to make personal gains.

One would hope that the Institutions or dept collectors are diverted to the government front door, if the government are responsible for the dept, before the persons concerned do any physical harm

If this is indeed the reason, it is more blood on the hands of the PM, her brother, and their government.

I fail to see how she can be blamed, when it was the Miller who was dropping the price to 5,000 baht per tonne, this is so sad indeed, it sounds like he wasn't part of the rice scam if he stored his rice locally.

As harsh as this sounds, but when you have so much rice to start shifting, that Price is not going to get much better than 8000-9000 baht per tonne, if or when the Government cesases, then the peoples council are still going to have to shift it, and they're not going to be able to meet the agreed price either, so many more farmers are going to be given the golden rivet!!

There have been over 12 prior to the price dropping. RIP young man I suspect you'll not be the last,

If this is indeed the reason, it is more blood on the hands of the PM, her brother, and their government.

Sorry mate but no you are wrong!!!,

the farmer did NOT sell to the rice pledging scheme, but to an independent miller that cut the buying price far lower than the farmer could afford, This is one of the reasons why the government started the rice pledging scheme, to help the farmers out of poverty by offering a higher price than the rich profiteering of millers holding them to ransom , GEE have you ever heard of price fixing??? Which goes on in the most modern country's and when they get caught they are made to pay large fines and sometimes jail, but here the out stretched Palme's are crossed with cash and everything is just a misunderstanding,,,now remember TIT so it's been going on for years, Now I agree the rice pledging scheme is not a well planed policy and full of corruption, BUT in your claim the PM has blood on her hands, try understanding the facts before throwing around blame, fair enough.

Terrible and RIP. So young too.

It sounds like the miller shafted him with a price of 5500 baht. I hope this is not going to be a trend by the millers to keep there profit margins up (post rice scheme failure) at the expense of the farmers.

Lets hope this is the last death at the hands of the PTP failed scheme.

Sorry djjamie, it's just the RE-START of this as it's why the rice scheme was put into place to help the farmers being shafted by profiteering millers,

been going on for years.

Cheer

If this is indeed the reason, it is more blood on the hands of the PM, her brother, and their government.

Sorry mate but no you are wrong!!!,

the farmer did NOT sell to the rice pledging scheme, but to an independent miller that cut the buying price far lower than the farmer could afford, This is one of the reasons why the government started the rice pledging scheme, to help the farmers out of poverty by offering a higher price than the rich profiteering of millers holding them to ransom , GEE have you ever heard of price fixing??? Which goes on in the most modern country's and when they get caught they are made to pay large fines and sometimes jail, but here the out stretched Palme's are crossed with cash and everything is just a misunderstanding,,,now remember TIT so it's been going on for years, Now I agree the rice pledging scheme is not a well planed policy and full of corruption, BUT in your claim the PM has blood on her hands, try understanding the facts before throwing around blame, fair enough.

If it was ever about helping the poor rice farmer. They should have set limits in how much rice they could claim for. When rubber feed subsidies were being discussed, we were told to a maximum of 25 Rai. The fact is the poor rice farmers could not afford to join the scam scheme. I bet they still have to pay extra for fertiliser though.