Former TAA chairman suggests Thai govt introduce five-year debt moratorium

[webfact]

Former TAA chairman suggests govt introduce five-year debt moratorium

BANGKOK, 6 June 2016, (NNT) - Former Chairman of the Thai Agriculturists Association (TAA) Wichian Phuanglamjiak has suggested the government introduce a five-year, interest-free debt moratorium for farmers and increase the price of unhusked rice, as two key approaches to helping Thai farmers.

Mr. Wichian made the comment on the occasion of the Rice and Farmers' Day on June 5. He asserted that the debt moratorium would effectively address the problem of rising agricultural debt. Mr. Wichian also urged the government to adjust the price of unhusked rice, which could boost farmers' profits by 40%.

Mr. Wichian pointed out that currently, rice farmers are struggling with water shortages, high production costs, and low selling prices. He believed that these solutions could help farmers to become self-reliant.

The former TAA Chairman also anticipated a rice shortage next year due to a series of natural disasters that occurred this year. He said the government's policy to advocate drought-tolerant crops is only applicable for areas with predictable weather patterns.


-- NNT 2016-06-06

[phoenixdoglover]

I have another idea.

Quit screwing around with the price of rice.

If you want to help farmers, subsidize them with low interest loans, tax abatement, and education. But stop messing around with the market.

[Strangebrew]

It would be far better to teach them to just plant less water intensive crops as to help offset there rice crops.

[worgeordie]

All Governments ,past and present have thrown money at the Farmers,

but the Farmers are still up to their eyes in debt,something is seriously

wrong here,the rest of the population work hard,pay tax,VAT is collected,

and lots seems to be wasted helping the Farmers,it's wasted because

nothing changes,it's been the same for donkey's years.

regards Worgeordie

[somo]

I have another idea.

Quit screwing around with the price of rice.

If you want to help farmers, subsidize them with low interest loans, tax abatement, and education. But stop messing around with the market.

The price of agricultural products is subsidized around the world especially in the USA and EU so why shouldn't Thailand do the same? Low interest loans are great for farmers they love them. The more the merrier but the money is not usually invested in farming. More like whisky and Lao Khow. Tax abatement, are you kidding? No farmers pay any tax! Education is a fantasy. It doesn't work with the children and certainly won't help half drunk adults who think they know everything there is to know about how to grow their crops. About the only solution is to subsidize the price of both the the produce and fertilizer etc.

[somo]

It would be far better to teach them to just plant less water intensive crops as to help offset there rice crops.

And just what crops would you suggest?

Paddy fields cost a fortune to convert to normal fields so that is a non starter and all crops need water.

Got any more silly ideas?

[seajae]

It would be far better to teach them to just plant less water intensive crops as to help offset there rice crops.

And just what crops would you suggest?

Paddy fields cost a fortune to convert to normal fields so that is a non starter and all crops need water.

Got any more silly ideas?

suggest you look around the rest of the world as well as some other thai farmers that have done exactly this, the only impediments are the attitude of the so called farmers that refuse to change anything they do. Unfortunately too many farmers will not accept change, they put that much chemical fertilizer etc into the ground they are killing it, what worked last century is no longer relevant and until they can accept this fact and start to modify what they do and how they do it the failures will only get worse. The only silly ideas are the ones that stop the farmers from doing things differently, easier to sit around drinking every night

[halloween]

All Governments ,past and present have thrown money at the Farmers,

but the Farmers are still up to their eyes in debt,something is seriously

wrong here,the rest of the population work hard,pay tax,VAT is collected,

and lots seems to be wasted helping the Farmers,it's wasted because

nothing changes,it's been the same for donkey's years.

regards Worgeordie

The reasons are obvious - there's lots of them, they all vote, and most will swallow crap if you coat it with sugar.

The answer is equally obvious - reduce the number of farmers. Then you can make them be economically responsible without being voted out of office.

How do you achieve that - I have no idea.

[robblok]

All Governments ,past and present have thrown money at the Farmers,

but the Farmers are still up to their eyes in debt,something is seriously

wrong here,the rest of the population work hard,pay tax,VAT is collected,

and lots seems to be wasted helping the Farmers,it's wasted because

nothing changes,it's been the same for donkey's years.

regards Worgeordie

The reasons are obvious - there's lots of them, they all vote, and most will swallow crap if you coat it with sugar.

The answer is equally obvious - reduce the number of farmers. Then you can make them be economically responsible without being voted out of office.

How do you achieve that - I have no idea.

That is the problem when you have a large group that only want money but don't really pay much taxes themselves. It would be the same if people on unemployment benefits were a majority in a country they would always vote to have their benefits increased no matter what and hold the country hostage.

Its similar here, they pay no real tax but get large benefits from governments. Loans that get written off loans with low interest, higher prices for their products. the works.. but it never improves for them. If they were not such a large group normal governments would already have said go do something productive we stop subsidizing you at the cost of the taxpayers.

[somo]

It would be far better to teach them to just plant less water intensive crops as to help offset there rice crops.

And just what crops would you suggest?

Paddy fields cost a fortune to convert to normal fields so that is a non starter and all crops need water.

Got any more silly ideas?

suggest you look around the rest of the world as well as some other thai farmers that have done exactly this, the only impediments are the attitude of the so called farmers that refuse to change anything they do. Unfortunately too many farmers will not accept change, they put that much chemical fertilizer etc into the ground they are killing it, what worked last century is no longer relevant and until they can accept this fact and start to modify what they do and how they do it the failures will only get worse. The only silly ideas are the ones that stop the farmers from doing things differently, easier to sit around drinking every night

You are wrong on a couple of counts.

Fertilizer does not kill ground!

The farmers cannot afford to use lots of fertilizer.

You are right about the drinking which is part of the reason that the land is under not over fertilized.

What non silly ideas do you think they should adopt and what other crops should they grow in the paddy fields?

[elgordo38]

All Governments ,past and present have thrown money at the Farmers,

but the Farmers are still up to their eyes in debt,something is seriously

wrong here,the rest of the population work hard,pay tax,VAT is collected,

and lots seems to be wasted helping the Farmers,it's wasted because

nothing changes,it's been the same for donkey's years.

regards Worgeordie

Kick the can down the road. After 5 years the debt will be higher and the gravy train longer. Its a no win situation. Why not do a Japan and increase the VAT tax to pay for the farmers to keep on mismanaging. They did postpone their tax increase for the next PM to deal with.