PM calls for overhaul of farming sector

 

BANGKOK, 21 March 2017 (NNT) – The Prime Minister has called for an overhaul of the nation’s farming sector to remedy its long standing issues. 

Speaking at the fourth so-called mini-Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-ocha stated that less obstacles and greater ease of work is needed for agricultural businesses. He commented that past attempts to elevate the sector have not sought to overhaul it in its entirety and have left rules and regulations that impede proper management and facilitation for industry members. He also pointed to long held dependence on state assistance and the pervasiveness of influential groups in the farming community, saying that only through cooperation by all sides can the government truly reform the nation’s agriculture. 

The meeting then proceeded to approve a plan to stabilize 5 key economic plants, which comprise rice, para-rubber, oil palm, tapioca and corn for animal feed. The move is to ensure their viability and production as they comprise a large part of the economy. 

Minister attached to the Prime Minister’s Office Suwit Mesinsee added afterward that younger officials have been drafted to meet with the new generation of industrial leaders and commercial tycoons and intake their views on the country’s future.

 

-- nnt 2017-03-21

4 hours ago, webfact said:

The meeting then proceeded to approve a plan to stabilize 5 key economic plants, which comprise rice, para-rubber, oil palm, tapioca and corn for animal feed. The move is to ensure their viability and production as they comprise a large part of the economy.

Not an expert on agriculture, but would think a broader plan would be necessary.  When first usurping power, the PM rushed to talk to farmers about their shallot crop.  Agriculture and its planning in Thailand has always been mystifying . 

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Minister attached to the Prime Minister’s Office Suwit Mesinsee added afterward that younger officials have been drafted to meet with the new generation of industrial leaders and commercial tycoons and intake their views on the country’s future.

Commercial tycoons hmm. Sounds like people that want to buy up farmland on the cheap. 

I always wonder why Isaan isn't high tech farming community with quality EU equipment?

 

Considering how much $$$ £££ went there over the past 40? years...

Still waiting for the headline 'Farmers call for overhaul of country's governance."

Until the farmers want to listen to new idea's and take notice of the younger guns ,it will remain a back water  industry , that's why the younger people leave the country and go into the cities , quite a few have done their Degree in agriculture but granddad wont listen and father listens to granddad.........................

To change the farming sector you need to get everyone together at local level, then regional level and then national level. Then you must duct tape a small man in camo that he cant talk and are forced to listen to others. For any change to succeed you need input from farmers, government, exporters and industries. Before you can tell farmers to plant specific crops there need to be done specific studies regarding suitability, input supply chain, transfer of knowledge, infrastructure needed and marketing. It takes years to put such a plan into action. Yet some people believe their magic wand (S44) can fix everything by decree.

1 hour ago, 11223344 said:

I always wonder why Isaan isn't high tech farming community with quality EU equipment?

 

Considering how much $$$ £££ went there over the past 40? years...

And into whose pockets do you imagine such monies as there were actually went? Certainly not to the poor subsistence farmers who are probably 90% of all the farmers of Thailand ... with no capital for investment, barely enough to feed themselves, and mostly illiterate & passive because of generations of appropriate education (ie none) designed to produce passivity & obedience.

I suppose the farming sector is easier to 'reform' than the TAT, TSM, BIB, RTP, Immigration, pollution.....on land, the beaches and AIR. Road fatalities, just to name a few other situations. I think the farmers have been able to figure things out for themselves for the past few hundred years.....

Economic plants? Economic in what way? Or does he (it) mean vital to the economy? Certainly it is past time that rice became less of a central plank of the Thai economy. Far too many rice farmers, not enough consumers, and too much competition, irrespective of whether they truly think that Thai rice doesn't have any competition.

4 hours ago, 11223344 said:

I always wonder why Isaan isn't high tech farming community with quality EU equipment?

 

Considering how much $$$ £££ went there over the past 40? years...

Your last statement seems to infer that investment went into another crop. Hmmm let me guess. 

3 hours ago, SOUTHERNSTAR said:

To change the farming sector you need to get everyone together at local level, then regional level and then national level. Then you must duct tape a small man in camo that he cant talk and are forced to listen to others. For any change to succeed you need input from farmers, government, exporters and industries. Before you can tell farmers to plant specific crops there need to be done specific studies regarding suitability, input supply chain, transfer of knowledge, infrastructure needed and marketing. It takes years to put such a plan into action. Yet some people believe their magic wand (S44) can fix everything by decree.

They do that already for many years on the royal project farms...the produce is sold in shops in bkk and cheaper/better than anything in the supermarkets.

Economic plants? Economic in what way? Or does he (it) mean vital to the economy? Certainly it is past time that rice became less of a central plank of the Thai economy. Far too many rice farmers, not enough consumers, and too much competition, irrespective of whether they truly think that Thai rice doesn't have any competition.

A very large proportion of the farming activity away from the central Chao Praya River basin is essentially subsistence farming. Small family owned plots growing rice for their own consumption. Certainly any surplus is sold, but the main effort is to provide food for the extended family. Rice is the staple of the diet, that is why it is the universal crop. Where cash crops are grown the farmers are almost always at the mercy of the agricultural middle men. That is perhaps where some effective reform would help.

4 hours ago, mfd101 said:

And into whose pockets do you imagine such monies as there were actually went? Certainly not to the poor subsistence farmers who are probably 90% of all the farmers of Thailand ... with no capital for investment, barely enough to feed themselves, and mostly illiterate & passive because of generations of appropriate education (ie none) designed to produce passivity & obedience.

I always imagined the money flow is

 

Farang -> Hooker -> "Poor farmer family"

 

So the billions over 40+ years goes from "Poor farmer families" where?