Farmers call for new Thailand rice price pledge

Farming industry leaders have called on the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) to issue a policy guaranteeing rice sales at 10,000 baht per tonne for the next crop, amid fears the price of the grain is falling.

Growers made the demand after the NCPO began to pay long-overdue funds to farmers owed cash under the former government's rice pledging scheme, which guaranteed a rice price of 15,000 baht per tonne in 2011.

Songpon Poonsawat, chairman of the Council of Farmers in Ang Thong province, said his organisation would propose short-term assistance packages for the NCPO to consider, to help farmers suffering as a result of low rice prices.

“We would be happy if the NCPO could guarantee our rice price at 10,000 baht per tonne for the next crop. Each farmer has invested at least 5,000 baht per rai,” Mr Songpon said.

"If not, we may suffer big losses from selling the rice, because the current market price is about 5,000-6,000 baht per tonne."

Mr Songpon suggested the intervention be carried out for the next two crops, until the market price of rice returns to normal. He argued the situation would improve if rice stockpiles were sold off.

According to Ministry of Finance inspectors, the rice-pledging project is projected to have cost the country 500 billion baht, while millions of tonnes of rice have disappeared from stocks.

Mr Songpon said the former government tried to sell a huge amount of rice stock, which forced the market price of the grain to drop.

In the long-term, he said the new government should draft a policy educating farmers on how to reduce the cost of rice production, while officials should also encourage so-called rice zoning, which promotes the planting of rice in certain areas to improve the quality of the product.

He said farmers are currently planting low-grade rice, because they want to produce enough yield to join the rice pledging scheme, but this is harming Thailand's reputation for producing premium-grade rice.

Ubonsak Bualuang-ngam, chairman of the Committee on Central Agriculture, said the next government should support co-operatives for farmers, to strengthen the farming industry.

Mr Ubonsak said the co-operative system empowers farmers to set their own prices and encourages them to plant more premium rice.

Reducing or eliminating the use of chemicals in rice production would help reduce the cost of production, he said, adding that organic rice zones must be developed to promote and support chemical-free rice and benefit people's health.