Rice crisis back to haunt junta
By The Nation

 

The current govt has failed to learn lessons from disastrous short-term, politically motivated policies of its predecessors

 

BANGKOK: -- The government has launched a plan to help out rice farmers with Bt35.9 billion in “soft” loans at a lowly 3 per cent interest.

The market price for Hom Mali (Jasmine) paddy has now dropped to Bt9,700 per tonne, from Bt12,000 previously.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has sought to alleviate pressure on his government by accusing local politicians and rice millers of collaborating to suppress the price.

 

He went as far as to suggest that collaboration was motivated by a political desire to damage ties between the government and farmers, and proposed that a law be enacted to punish the “evil” middlemen.

 

Full story: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/opinion/today_editorial/30298912

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2016-11-02

They are getting their chance to show how rice pledging should be done.  Their experience with bike lanes and beach chairs will no doubt prove invaluable. 

Edited November 2, 20169 yr by yellowboat

23 minutes ago, yellowboat said:

They are getting their chance to show how rice pledging should be done.  Their experience with bike lanes and beach chairs will no doubt prove invaluable. 

 

Although their blind eye to corruption (parks, Government House purchase scams etc) and toleration of unacceptable excesses (outrageously priced junket flights to Hawaii, unchecked nepotism)  might prove a bit of a handicap here...

The Rice Crisis is back, but the Entertainment Crisis is ending, so the farmers can go to karaoke again from Nov 14.

19 hours ago, webfact said:

The current govt has failed to learn lessons from disastrous short-term, politically motivated policies of its predecessors

The Military government needn't learn lessons as it isn't accountable for failure.

19 hours ago, webfact said:

The government has launched a plan to help out rice farmers with Bt35.9 billion in “soft” loans at a lowly 3 per cent interest.

That was based on the original 11,525 baht/ton plan and not on the adjusted 13,000 baht/ton plan which the government says is costing only 20 billion baht - a substantial understatement of cost for which no one in the current government will be held accountable.

Slap around your least favourite Thai government over rice subsidies/schemes/etc, but remember that such things are probably happening in your home country. One of my home countries, Canada, spends billions a year of tax payer money propping up the agriculture sector. See http://www.economist.com/node/21563323 for 5 year old data... note that the government farm subsidies in the EU amounted to about 20% of total receipts. So while we happily criticise past and present governments for such policies, they are more the norm than the exception.