Long-term measures needed to help Thai farmers, says FTI

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STIMULAS PROGRAMME
Long-term measures needed to help farmers, says FTI
Erich Parpart
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Short-term stimulus programmes and cash handouts for farmers are good and quick measures but what are truly needed are mid- to long-term solutions to help farmers lift their productivity and lower production costs, according to the Federation of Thai Industries.

FTI chairman Supant Mongkolsuthree said last week that he agrees with the government's new stimulus measure, especially the Bt40 billion off-budget loan to fix up rural and provincial roads.

They can help employment and rev up the grassroots economy, which has slowed down somewhat from the lack of tangible investment from the government and the drop in domestic consumption, which have led to the first decline of the Thai Industries Sentiment Index in four months, he said.

The second stimulus measure involving debt relief and loan extensions for indebted farmers was only short term. More was needed to boost farmers' productivity.

"What the farmers really need is support for the means of production such as lower cost for fertiliser and new technology to increase productivity such as affordable mechanical tools, agrarian education so as to increase the quality of their products and technological support for agricultural surveys to enhance their overall competitiveness," he said.

"The government and large corporations can work together in education and technological support but the government has to take the lead. Large corporations can lend their expertise but it is up to the government to lay down the groundwork.

"Increasing support for agricultural zoning is also another mid- to long-term idea that is worth concentrating on," he said.

More stimulus measures were needed besides the latest ones as well as acceleration of government disbursement since the export sector contracted by 3.46 per cent in January from the same month last year, he said.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha promised last week that more stimulus measures were gradually coming, including government investment in utilities and special economic zones. His office is also looking for ways to help farmers cut production costs.

Somsak Chotratanasiri, director of the Budget Office, said last month that 39.6 per cent or Bt1.02 trillion out of the Bt2.57 trillion fiscal 2015 budget had been spent, which is lower than the government target of 48 per cent.

Disbursement of the investment budget was even slower. Just Bt67.59 billion or 15 per cent had been spent, far below the target of 41.8 per cent or Bt120 billion.

"We need more measures if gross domestic product is to expand by more than 3.5 per cent this year since the export sector, which makes up 70 per cent of GDP, is not doing so well at the moment," Supant said.

After taking power on May 22, the junta or the National Council for Peace and Order has embarked on several economic stimulus measures such as the accelerated payment of Bt92 billion for farmers under the rice-pledging scheme, the approval of delayed projects worth Bt700 billion by the Board of Investment (BoI), the acceleration of state spending and the three-month visa fee waiver for Chinese and Taiwanese tourists from August-November.

Hiranya Sujinai, acting secretary-general of the BoI, said last month that she expects small BoI projects to begin construction in the second half of this year. The BoI promoted 3,469 projects worth Bt2.19 trillion last year.

After the NCPO came the military government headed by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, which produced the Bt364.47-billion stimulus package spearheaded by MR Pridiyathorn Devakula, the deputy prime minister in charge of the economy.

Pridiyathorn admitted in November that implementation of some parts of the stimulus package was behind by two to three months.

The stimulus package includes Bt129.5 billion that had been added to the 2015 fiscal budget, Bt147 billion in carryover budget, Bt48 billion of unused government funds going back as far as 2005, and the Bt40 billion dole outs to 3.4 million rice farmers.

Pridiyathorn said then that "not even one baht has been disbursed and no contract has been signed" for projects in the stimulus package, including job-creation measures worth Bt23 billion that were delayed because the project identification process was finished only at the end of October.

However, last Wednesday he said most of the contracts in the Bt23-billion budget for repair work under the Education and Public Health ministries and for irrigation projects were signed in January and construction should commence this month.

There were more proposals from the private sector. Last month, six business organisations jointly proposed eight urgent measures to support small and medium-sized enterprises and stimulate the economy.

They included lowering the corporate tax for SMEs and introducing a multiple-entry visa for tourists.

The FTI argued that lowering the corporate tax rate for SMEs over three years will encourage more businesses to get on the tax rolls, while the introduction of a government policy loan will help SMEs gain access to credit at soft interest rates from state banks.

The Tourism Council of Thailand said the introduction of a multiple-entry visa for tourists and a visa exemption for visitors who can show entry visas to the United States, euro zone, Britain, Japan or Australia would increase arrivals from developed countries

Isara Vongkusolkit, chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, has urged the government to give higher priority to biomass energy and the amount of such energy it bought and consumed to help farmers in the Northeast.

The Agriculture Ministry should keep up with its plan to support the production of corn, cassava, sugar and oil palm products.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Long-term-measures-needed-to-help-farmers-says-FTI-30255122.html


-- The Nation 2015-03-02

[Strangebrew]

What the farmers needs is to learn they need to plant multi crops not just rice, never put all your eggs in one basket. People eat plan and plant accordingly. Such as you need water for rice production lots of water why build a storage pond for water and stock with fish two things then happen you not only help control flooding and have water for rice and other crops you got fish also to help with income. what you can't sell can be used to fertilize next crop. reducing your costs. Co-op with other farmers and build your own rice mills get rid of the parasites of middle men your net gain for sales will makeup difference on costs. Same goes with storage just one of these reduces your costs and increases your profit. In other words be business men if your going to farm

[Srikcir]

The NCPO's cash handouts and short-term subsidies was less about economic sustainability than about Junta sustainability. It just needs to be in place long enough to solidify its permanent power over Thai sovereignty through its crafted constitution and reforms. And that requires suppression of open resistence. From then on farmers will find the military takes care of its own.