Rice farmer association urges govt to guarantee rice prices

The association president Pramote Charoensilp asked the subcommittee National Rice Policy and Management Committee to review its measures to tackle falling rice prices.

This remark came as the subcommittee previously launched measures worth 1.89 billion baht, which included extending loans for delaying sales of off-season paddy, increasing domestic market channels to support farmer sales and paying compensation for rice entrepreneurs.

However, the association’s honorary adviser Kriengsak Tapananon claimed that those measures do not match farmers’ demand, saying that such measures could trigger an impact on budgeting and risk of corruption.

Instead, the association outlined off-season rice farmers' demand as follows:

• Consider the rice price guarantee scheme, with at least 12,000 baht a tonne for paddy with 15% moisture content, and at least 10,000 baht a tonne for paddy with 25% moisture content.
• Consider payment for suspension of rice straw burning at 500 baht a rai.
• Control rice cultivation supplies, such as fertilisers, pesticides and fuel.
• Consider guidelines to compensate farmers for using their plots to mitigate flooding.
• Maintain the project to boost rice productivity at 1,000 baht a rai to mitigate the risk of production cost.                     

The government should ensure that all farmers have equal access to all measures, Kriengsak added.