Proposal to extend price-pledging for second rice

In addition, the committee will review its pledging conditions favouring influential rice farmers and instead focus on small and medium farmers. The pledging price of provincial fragrant rice will be raised by another Bt1,000 per tonne from the current Bt19,000.
The committee yesterday accepted a proposal by the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry to extend the period of the price-pledging scheme for the second crop. Total production of the second crop is estimated to reach 2 million tonnes, for which the government would need to spend Bt20 billion on subsidy. So far, the government has managed 9 million tonnes of paddy rice under its pledging scheme.
As secretary of the committee, Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyaphirom said the extension period would start in October. The programme will have the same criteria: The pledging price will start from Bt15,000 for paddy rice and Bt20,000 for jasmine rice, Bt19,000 for provincial jasmine rice and Bt16,000 for sticky rice.
“The policy is to subsidise further all rice but to review the pledging conditions by limiting total pledging value to Bt500,000 per farmer. We might also consider other conditions,” said Boonsong, pointing out that the government wanted to assist more small farmers.
Charnchai Ratthananon, president of the Thai Rice Millers Association, said the second-crop production would not exceed 3 million tonnes of paddy rice, which mainly will come from the Central region, comprising 20 provinces.
He added that the adjusted price of the second crop to Bt19,000 per tonne was aimed at increasing farmers’ income in the Central region.