Thai talk: For sustainable farming, get populist politics out of the way

[webfact]

THAI TALK
For sustainable farming, get populist politics out of the way
Suthichai Yoon
The Nation
Nakhon Sawan

BANGKOK: -- The most effective way for the government to help Thai farmers and the rice industry is simple and urgent: Just stay put.

That was the consensus at a "town-hall meeting" at this central "rice bowl" where representatives from all stakeholders in the crucial rice industry took turns to offer their ideas on how Thai farmers could improve their livelihoods in a sustainable way.

The general agreement was clear: Get politicians out of the picture. Only an independent Rice Board, representing all the major stakeholders and without political interference, should be empowered to draw up the country's rice master plan as well as an action plan to meet the country's real needs.

Politics has dominated the country's rice industry all the way from the fields to the export market. Misguided policies plagued with corruption have done much damage to the industry and benefited only politicians, while plunging farmers into heavier debt.

A farmer from Chainat, whose son committed suicide recently after the Yingluck caretaker government failed to pay for his pledged rice, said he had started farming at the age of 17. Today he is 75 and still toiling every day, and still heavily in debt without any light at the end of the tunnel.

The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) says it will drop both Pheu Thai Party's rice-pledging policy and the Democrat Party's rice price-guarantee scheme. Instead, it will pursue a policy that will help reduce production costs for farmers while at the same time promoting better categories of premium rice strains to earn better prices for farmers.

In other words, painful lessons have been learned from past "populist" policies that have not helped promote the livelihood of farmers in any significant way.

"Politicians come and go and they only look at short-term scenarios, while rice farming and the rice trade require sustainable, visionary and long-term strategies," said a veteran technocrat who has spent several decades studying the issue.

The previous government's rice-pledging scheme squandered about Bt500 billion in national budget to pay farmers Bt15,000 per kwian, much higher than the market price. Despite criticism and warnings of serious pitfalls, the Yingluck government went ahead with the policy, which is now the target of an investigation into high-level corruption.

Today, the market price of paddy is down to around Bt6,000-8,000 per kwian - and even if Thailand regains its ranking as world No 1 for rice exports (competing against Vietnam and India), the real revenue has dropped significantly.

"Thailand has exported 4.3 million tonnes of rice in the past five months, the highest in the world. But that doesn't mean we have gained. In fact, while the quantity rose 60 per cent, revenue only went up 16 per cent. That means Thailand has regained its No 1 position among rice exporting countries but has lost revenue in the process," a major rice exporter told me.

Farmers at the town-hall meeting agreed that politicians should not dictate how and where rice should be planted. Things get worse when they start to interfere with the market mechanism by fixing prices that go against the world trend.

Farmers may get short-term satisfaction with a "populist" rice price boost. But the recent disastrous case of the caretaker government being unable to pay up and the significant losses incurred has been a huge wake-up call. No populist policy is sustainable.

Farmers are demanding a more sustainable system in which they can sit down to discuss with bankers, rice-millers, exporters, researchers and marketers to map out their farming strategies, instead of just relying on handouts and short-term political largesse from the government.

Technology, rice strain research, modern farming methods and substitute agricultural practices must be part of the new pattern of rice farming to be introduced by an independent and professional Rice Board.

"If all the stakeholders were free to sit down and draw up a national master plan for rice without interference from politicians, we could wrap up the 'agenda for change' within 60 days," noted one experienced technocrat, who has spent most of his professional life in this field.

If the junta is serious about overhauling the rice industry and doing away with undue outside influence and political manipulation, the Rice Board concept is where the new action plan for sustainability in farming should be launched.


-- The Nation 2014-06-26

[Robby nz]

Keep politics and politicians out of rice farming....A top idea.

How about extending that.....Keep politicians out of everything.

Then the country could really go ahead.

[Suriya4]

All Thais love the great king ideas and teaching. I am sure all Thais will follow without reservation or protest.

[timewilltell]

And a swift law to make money lending at rates exceeding the current legal maximum of 15% per ANNUM a criminal offence with automatic voiding of any contract that breaches the law to get rid of the insidious family destroying scum who feed off the poor and ignorant.

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[Chao Lao Beach]

Could just make the farmers much more efficient...

[soalbundy]

All Thais love the great king ideas and teaching. I am sure all Thais will follow without reservation or protest.

What ?

[soalbundy]

And a swift law to make money lending at rates exceeding the current legal maximum of 15% per ANNUM a criminal offence with automatic voiding of any contract that breaches the law to get rid of the insidious family destroying scum who feed off the poor and ignorant.

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This scum can only lend money charging such extortionate rates because the banks won't lend to the farmers or if they do it takes months for the OK after the paperwork has been done.

[allan michaud]

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Could just make the farmers much more efficient... alt=clap2.gif>

It should not be too difficult to double Thailand's current rice production as they have one of the worst rates of ton's per hectare of all rice producing countries at around 2.6 tons. Vietnam manages well over 6 tons and Cambodia even tops Thailand with 2.9 tons per hectare.

The suggestions to get the fertiliser/pesticide prices controlled and to make land available to landless farmers so they don't get ripped off are also important. One of the first effects of the PTP rice scam was that land rental prices and fertilser prices spiked.

[sumtingwong]

But how will PTP buy votes then?

[robblok]

And a swift law to make money lending at rates exceeding the current legal maximum of 15% per ANNUM a criminal offence with automatic voiding of any contract that breaches the law to get rid of the insidious family destroying scum who feed off the poor and ignorant.

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This scum can only lend money charging such extortionate rates because the banks won't lend to the farmers or if they do it takes months for the OK after the paperwork has been done.

Banks need to do checks to see if they can get the money back and stuff like that. Loansharks just need to hire some thugs to beat up people to get the money back. That makes the process easier.

I am all for loaning money to farmers.. but not if they cant pay it back.

[djjamie]

"painful lessons have been learned from past "populist" policies that have not helped promote the livelihood of farmers in any significant way"

Populism attempts to take “The People” and pit them against “The Privileged” and as shown throughout history demagoguery, scapegoating, and conspiracism is part of this mix. The PTP specialized in all three. History has proven it and the PTP were showing it.

Remove this cancerous toxic drain on Thai society and the first people that will thank the DRT will be the rice farmers. The only people that will not thank them are the ones that benefit from the schemes as a tool to bribe that same extremely narrow voter base.

Edited June 26, 2014 by djjamie

[Daniel Boon]

best practice isn't always followed ...

[Thai at Heart]

Hahaha. Outstanding. Let the private sector who has chased the trophy of largest rice exporter in the world , whilst the farmer makes a loss.

Who exactly benefits, if the farmer is loss making but the country produces one kilogram more than it needs for domestic consumption?

Edited June 26, 2014 by Thai at Heart

[chotthee]

Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Localism_in_Thailand

"...The development of the country must be fostered in stages. It must start with the construction of infrastructure, that is, the provision of food and basic necessities for the people by methods which are economic, cautious and conforming with principles. Once the foundation is firmly established, progress can be continually, carefully and economically promoted. This approach will prevent incurring mistakes and failures, and lead to the certain and complete achievement of the objectives..."

If all Thai rice farmers follow this, it will surely return happiness to all Thailand.

No Thai rice farmers will go hungry ever after.

[hawker9000]

The dawn of a non-populist new age? If only such progress were really possible. I really hope so. But the Army will eventually turn the government back over to the politicians, and then what? Without frontal lobotomies, and with Thaksin and his cult followers still alive & well, these politicos will find their way back to the trough in no time. It all depends on to what extent voters in the north and northeast have learned their lesson, and their villages remain free of red boss intimidation and control.

[Balance]

Inertia toward change and the Thai face saving refusal to accept suggestions no matter what the benefit are enormous challenges to overcome. It will take years to set up the demonstration farms throughout Thailand that marry the teaching that is necessary with the technological changes necessary to reduce input costs and the modern business practices, like keeping books.

Food Tech solutions, a large multinational German organic food corporation appears to have a private sector model in place that works, in Thailand. Located in Amnat Charoen province,the company has created a modified cooperative model with hundreds of local farmers using the Thai Community Enterprise law. Below is a quote from their website

A Community Enterprise Network is a meta structure under the Community Enterprise Promotion Act B.E. 2548 (2005). It allows Community Enterprises to join together to promote their common business interest on a larger scale.This instrument is not very common and subsequently not easy to setup. According to a document published by the ministry of agriculture and cooperatives there are about 38.000 Community Enterprises in Thailand in the area of agricultre and food production but less than 150 Networks (as of June 2011).
If set up and managed properly the Community Enterprise Network allows the farmer to gain the profits from their sales through the Network virtually taxfee. This is a major incentive to the farmers and one of the main commercial reason we have promoted and assisted in setting up this type of business structure for our farming partners.

In the interesting Thesis " An Integrated Knowledge Management Model for Community Enterprises: A Case Study of a Rural Community Enterprise in Thailand" published in 2008 by Lanthom Jonjoubsong BSc, MSc Community Enterprises are defined as follows:"Community enterprises (CEs)... operate their businesses on a small scale with self-employed members and a small amount of capital. In fact, CEs can be classified as a specific type of enterprise. ... CEs are community-owned and operated by a group and have a larger number of members or self-employed workers. ... CE in Thailand usually has around 30-50 members. ... CEs are established with the basic objectives of community development through enhancing the quality of community life and economic development .... According to the community enterprise development centre in Thailand (2001), the main purposes of CEs are to enhance economic and social development, and provide community learning opportunities. ... They do basic production and provide services using local and natural materials, simple technology, local wisdom, and a local labour force which is low in business skills."

Take a look. http://www.foodtech-solutions.com/en/contact-details/. Just change the "en" in the url to th for the thai language version.

[Daniel Boon]

the incentive for a Farmer to produce more than his family needs, is a return on his labour and out-goings; although co-operatives are touted as the ideal operations, distribution of earnings may be shared; however, some put in more work than others. The incentive is to have potential farmers rent-buy their land, but this is not conducive to larger land holders and so, the effort put in is dictated by the 'rewards'.

Local empirical knowledge indicates that most rice farmers are deep in debt with little prospect to better their lives; their children see the road to perpetual enslavement and go elsewhere ... as with every other place, the middle-men don't value add, they just cost add ... and as fuel prices go higher, so too will the cost of food ... and when the Farmer grows just enough for his family, what will you do?

[mikebell]

If rice is now a dead duck, what is the alternative as suggested by knowledgeable TV posters?

My FiL is nearly 80 & still labours almost daily for next to nothing. He grows enough rice for his personal family consumption. My wife & her brothers returned to Surin to spend a weekend helping their dad (& mum who is bent double after a lifetime in the paddy fields) harvest tapioca roots (mansapalang?) Their combined take was 4000 baht, less transport costs/bus fares.

I would like to contribute to their welfare but he is too proud to accept a monthly handout.

[timewilltell]

And a swift law to make money lending at rates exceeding the current legal maximum of 15% per ANNUM a criminal offence with automatic voiding of any contract that breaches the law to get rid of the insidious family destroying scum who feed off the poor and ignorant.

Sent from my iPad using ThaiVisa app

This scum can only lend money charging such extortionate rates because the banks won't lend to the farmers or if they do it takes months for the OK after the paperwork has been done.

Banks need to do checks to see if they can get the money back and stuff like that. Loansharks just need to hire some thugs to beat up people to get the money back. That makes the process easier.

I am all for loaning money to farmers.. but not if they cant pay it back.

Farmers can and do borrow money from the banks, until they default and then turn to money lenders who charge such extortionate rates that the people really have no way to ever repay and end up in a deathly spiral of debt. Most of these people are ill educated and have zero money management skills or even think beyond the immediate future, probably believing a visit to the temple is all that is needed to bring the whole thing around.

Thailand introduced laws to limit interest chargeable by private lenders to 15% per year. Of course they get around this by front loading the interest and adding it to the loan and various other methods. The lenders are not stupid enough to write it in a contract. So the problem is one that has been recognized and legislated against. The laws are not good enough and need review to make it a criminal offence maybe because these lenders are really just a mafia who will and do use violence to get their way. They destroy families.

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