Thai Cabinet gives green light to increased compensation for rice traders

[webfact]

Cabinet gives green light to increased compensation for rice traders

BANGKOK, 30 December 2015 (NNT) - The Cabinet on Tuesday approved an increase in compensation for rice traders in 2016 by 204 million baht. It also decided to extend the Village Fund program to 3 March next year or until the program's budget is depleted.

Government Spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha instructed all ministries to follow up on their projects and set periodic targets. They were also told to try to make the public see the results of their works clearly.

The PM asked national security units to ensure the public’s confidence in transportation, travel, economy and safety during the New Year holiday.

As for the drought situation, Gen.Prayut acknowledged the country’s water information compiled by units in the district level. According to them, Thailand now has 21 billion cubic meters of water, of which 18 - 19 billion cubic meters are expected to be used by August - September next year. The 21 billion cubic meters are therefore considered as sufficient for the next dry season.

The Cabinet stressed that a water use plan was necessary after the number of farmers who planted second-season rice did not decrease as expected.

The Cabinet gave nods to the 204-million-baht increase in compensation for rice traders due to the speculation that next year’s rice price will be lower than 8,000 baht/ton.

The Village Fund program will be extended to 31 March 2016 or until the 60-billion-baht budget is all used up so that potential villages will receive funding from the program.

-- NNT 2015-12-30

[khwaibah]

Screw the rice traders. How about getting that money to the farmers?

[robblok]

Screw the rice traders. How about getting that money to the farmers?

Agreed, why give the rice traders money they are usually wealthy already it should go to the farmers.

[bangon04]

Screw the rice traders. How about getting that money to the farmers?

Agreed, why give the rice traders money they are usually wealthy already it should go to the farmers.

You mean the rice farmers who were "urged" not to grow extra crops but who did it anyway?

[DLock]

Screw the rice traders. How about getting that money to the farmers?

Agreed, why give the rice traders money they are usually wealthy already it should go to the farmers.

You mean the rice farmers who were "urged" not to grow extra crops but who did it anyway?

Yeah. Those ones.

So they could afford to eat and take care of their family.

It's all fine and dandy "urging" them not to grow rice, but most are subsistence farmers - no rice = no food.

Rice Traders. No rice = no new Mercedes or gold for the Mia Noi's.

You see the difference?

[robblok]

Screw the rice traders. How about getting that money to the farmers?

Agreed, why give the rice traders money they are usually wealthy already it should go to the farmers.

You mean the rice farmers who were "urged" not to grow extra crops but who did it anyway?

No just the ones who did not do that, but giving money to rice traders who are by definition rich is just wrong.

[JOC]

First the traders help YL robbing the country blind during the rice-scam, and now when the golden days are over, they get compensated by the junta !!

Makes sense....................

[Eric Loh]

First the traders help YL robbing the country blind during the rice-scam, and now when the golden days are over, they get compensated by the junta !!

Makes sense....................

Perhaps you can quote a case or two regarding rice traders helping YL robbed the country blind would be useful. No need for extra information regarding junta populist compensation which is very clear.

[oneday]

More proof the government could care less about the poorest people in the country.

[callaway]

Compensate thai chinese rice traders? Ever see a poor one? Have watched these snake oil salesmen screwing the farmers so hard when they look at the rice samples. On comes their serious face like the rice sample is so bad. Then the slimebags move in on the kill. You see the look of devestation when the farmer gets his price. The traders are low as a snakes ass (well most of them).

[TPI]

Screw the rice traders. How about getting that money to the farmers?

Agreed, why give the rice traders money they are usually wealthy already it should go to the farmers.

You mean the rice farmers who were "urged" not to grow extra crops but who did it anyway?

Yeah. Those ones.

So they could afford to eat and take care of their family.

It's all fine and dandy "urging" them not to grow rice, but most are subsistence farmers - no rice = no food.

Rice Traders. No rice = no new Mercedes or gold for the Mia Noi's.

You see the difference?

It's a wonder what strange planet some of those previous OP's come from? The rice traders are generally very very wealthy, why would they need financial support unless, of course, another group of people were also "rice traders"!!!

[TPI]

First the traders help YL robbing the country blind during the rice-scam, and now when the golden days are over, they get compensated by the junta !!

Makes sense....................

Perhaps you can quote a case or two regarding rice traders helping YL robbed the country blind would be useful. No need for extra information regarding junta populist compensation which is very clear.

Mr Loh, try reading some newspapers from say, the last 3 years!!

[Ulic]

Personally I have no idea how this works. It just seems like lobby groups insuring there own

interests are served and bank accounts fattened. Same, same as any other country

[Solomon]

Screw the rice traders. How about getting that money to the farmers?

Agreed, why give the rice traders money they are usually wealthy already it should go to the farmers.

Governments take care of their constituents.

PTP policies will benefit the 66 million poorest Thais

Military/Democrat policies will benefit the 4 million richest Thais

What the hell do you think the last 10 years of violence has been about?

Corruption?

[Solomon]

First the traders help YL robbing the country blind during the rice-scam, and now when the golden days are over, they get compensated by the junta !!

Makes sense....................

Perhaps you can quote a case or two regarding rice traders helping YL robbed the country blind would be useful. No need for extra information regarding junta populist compensation which is very clear.

Mr Loh, try reading some newspapers from say, the last 3 years!!

PTP rice scheme bypassed the traders and paid the growers a fixed rate of B15,000

[rubl]

First the traders help YL robbing the country blind during the rice-scam, and now when the golden days are over, they get compensated by the junta !!

Makes sense....................

Perhaps you can quote a case or two regarding rice traders helping YL robbed the country blind would be useful. No need for extra information regarding junta populist compensation which is very clear.

Ms. Yingluck was negligent and through negligence lost the country 500, 600 or more billion Baht on her 'self-financing' scam.

The current government is still stuck with a rice mountain which it tries to sell for a 'good' price to traders for export. With rice prices falling, something needs to be done to get rid of the rice mountain. selling to traders at a loss would open government officials to charges of 'losing the country money'. So subsidise the traders.

BTW 204 million Baht ? That's peanuts if it solves the problem of 14 million tonnes of rice deteriorating.

[rubl]

First the traders help YL robbing the country blind during the rice-scam, and now when the golden days are over, they get compensated by the junta !!

Makes sense....................

Perhaps you can quote a case or two regarding rice traders helping YL robbed the country blind would be useful. No need for extra information regarding junta populist compensation which is very clear.

Mr Loh, try reading some newspapers from say, the last 3 years!!

PTP rice scheme bypassed the traders and paid the growers a fixed rate of B15,000

Well, that was the idea as presented. A month or two ago Pheu Thai also stated to have aimed for the 3.2 million rice growing families representing 23% of the countries polutation. They claimed to have paid 800 billion Baht directly to framers. Interesting is that only 1.4 million rice farmers families participated. No data (of course) on what 1.4m families represent in %% of the Thai population. It would seem only 10,000 rice farming families participating were classified as having a combined family income of more than 500,000 Baht, but no data on how much was paid to them. The close to 1.4m rice farming families are divided into 'small income' (less than 100,000 Baht as family) and medium income' (between 100,000 and 500,000 as family income). No data on how much of the 800 billion Baht was paid directly to the small, medium and large family income groups.

what is clear though is that poor dfarmers are still poor or even poorer.

[Srikcir]

Screw the rice traders. How about getting that money to the farmers?

Partially done:

"The government has also introduced an income assurance scheme via the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) for jasmine rice farmers. Under the scheme, the BAAC will provide a loan of up to 13,500 baht per ton depending on the grain quality to farmers, who are allowed to return the money whenever they are able to sell rice at a favorable price." 2015-11-12

A great deal:

"Commerce Minister Mrs Apiradi Tantraporn said the average price of jasmine rice during 2015/16 harvest season is between 10,600-13,000 baht per ton. She said the price did not decrease to as low as 7,000-8,000 baht a ton as reported." 2015-12-15

[casualbiker]

First the traders help YL robbing the country blind during the rice-scam, and now when the golden days are over, they get compensated by the junta !!

Makes sense....................

Perhaps you can quote a case or two regarding rice traders helping YL robbed the country blind would be useful. No need for extra information regarding junta populist compensation which is very clear.

Mr Loh, try reading some newspapers from say, the last 3 years!!

PTP rice scheme bypassed the traders and paid the growers a fixed rate of B15,000

Did it? Are you sure? I remember reading the farmers complaining because they WEREN'T getting the full rate due to to much water content etc.

[casualbiker]

Interesting article on the rice business in Thailand: http://asiancorrespondent.com/2014/02/wsj-on-the-core-failure-of-the-rice-pledging-scheme/