Farmers Council threatens to stop backing government

Leading a rally at Government House of farmers representing the NFC in 10 central and northern provinces yesterday, Charin Singdee said the best way forward for the scheme was to eradicate corruption. He said all 80,000 NFC members would stop “acting as a shield” to protect the Yingluck Shinawatra government if the rate was not raised back to Bt15,000.

Charin, head of the NFC’s Sing Buri office, said his group would not take part in a mass rally planned today by several farmers’ groups at the Royal Plaza, adding that it would probably be a mostly pro-Pheu Thai red-shirt demonstration.

PM’s Office Minister Varathep Ratanakorn yesterday accepted a written complaint from the group and gave a promise to make a final decision on the rice price guarantee by June 29. He said he was not worried by the scale or duration of the rally planned for today. “The rally should neither escalate nor be prolonged, unless it is manipulated politically,” he added.

In Ratchaburi, chairman of Tambon Pak Tho Administration Organisation Khomsan Pradermchai slammed the decision, asking “which part of the brain the government had used” in deciding to reduce the rate to Bt12,000. He predicted farmers would commit suicide over losses or debts incurred when the pledge was cut by Bt3,000 for coming harvests.

His words followed reports that Ratchaburi farmer Lua Srimuk had suffered a fatal heart attack over worry that her rice crop would not be harvested in time for the scheduled June 30 cut in the pledge price. Her funeral was held yesterday evening.

In Phayao, farmers from all nine districts gathered for a meeting with the provincial governor to show their support for the government, on condition that rice pledge levels be raised even further to Bt20,000 for seeds and to Bt15,000 for sticky-rice seeds. Meanwhile, in Phatthalung, farmers gathered to protest the Bt3,000 cut, which they said would drastically reduce their future profits or even wipe them out.