Plan to shift farmers from rice opposed

OPPOSITION has begun to emerge against a plan to encourage farmers to abandon rice and grow different crops – in return for financial compensation.
The plan aims to tackle problems arising from drought and low rice prices.
Water shortages have frequently threatened paddy fields. For example, rice farmers in at least one province yesterday staged a rally in front of a local irrigation office to demand that a dam release water into their areas.
Northeastern Rice Farmers Association president Panupong Pattarakhon-ngam yesterday said he was aware of the drought threat, but he could not agree with the government plan.
“Such a plan doesn’t tackle the problems at their root. If drought poses a threat, the government should provide efficient irrigation,” he said.
The Department of Agricultural Extension has begun work on the scheme to encourage farmers to switch to other types of produce such as energy crops. In return, they would be offered Bt5,000 compensation per rai in the first year, Bt3,000 per rai in the second, and Bt2,000 per rai in the third year.
At present, paddy fields cover about 70 million rai (11.2 million hectares) of land in Thailand.
Panupong described such a plan as a populist scheme that would hurt rice farmers in the long run.
“We grow rice not just for sale. We grow it for our family’s consumption too,” he said.
He said the size of paddy fields in Thailand had already been shrinking naturally in response to demand-and-supply mechanisms.
On the rice price, Panupong said the problem was now serious because the government was still trying to release a vast amount of rice from its stockpiles.
The rice-pledging scheme was one of the previous government’s populist programmes.
It ended with a huge stockpile and financial losses because it offered rice farmers too high a price, critics say.
It still owes money to some participating farmers.
Several of these farmers yesterday submitted a petition to Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha via the Office of the Permanent Secretary of the PM’s Office, calling for faster payments to clear up the arrears.
The 121 farmers from Nakhon Sawan and Phichit provinces lamented they had been waiting for payments amounting to Bt20 million from the scheme for nearly a year.
The farmers have threatened to stage a protest if the payment does not arrive by October 15.