Junta to introduce assistance measures for farmer in two weeks

BANGKOK, June 7 (TNA) - The ruling National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) is finding ways to assist farmers, who want the military junta to continue with the controversial rice-pledging scheme, sponsored by the previous ousted government. General Chatchai Sareekalaya, NCPO’s deputy chief responsible for economic affairs, early Saturday presided over a meeting attended by representatives from eight government and farmer agencies. He told journalists after the meeting that farmers attended the meeting proposed to make assistance in three ways, namely by lowering production costs such as fertiliser and insecticide, an improvement of irrigation system, and an improvement of rice seeds. Wichien Puanglamjiak, president of Thai Farmers Association, opined that farmers throughout Thailand still want the junta to continue the rice-pledging programme as farmers could still make profit after selling their rice. At present, market rice prices stand at between 4,000 – 6,000 baht per tonne, while production costs are around 7,000 – 7,700 baht per tonne, said Wichien. He said if NCPO wants to suspend the rice-pledging programme, concerned state agencies should help farmers by helping them to gain at least 40 per cent of the selling price. General Chatchai promised that NCPO would inform farmers of its decision on June 20. On Friday, Supat Eauchai, executive vice-president of state-run Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, said the state still owed more than 50 billion baht to farmers joining the controversial programme to date and it is expected that farmers would receive the money before June 20. (TNA)