Rice scheme needs a major overhaul and transparency
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PM Yingluck is finding it very difficult to dismount from her rice scheme tiger. She should make the scheme truly help poor farmers, thus rallying them and her current critics to her side by focusing on Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Efficient People,
We should let the market system operate, but shield farmers from price fluctuations, by having the pledge price be slightly below (not above) world market prices, and be re-set annually. This will encourage farmers and the government to focus on factors they can control and which give sustainable benefits, like improving yields so that our rice productivity is no longer 22nd in the world out of 23 major rice producing nations, and on reducing production costs.
Also, those who have income from two or three crops/year don’t need aid, and so the price pledge should extend only to the first crop. The pledged rice per family should be capped based on cultivated area and average annual productivity, to reduce corruption.
I also back Suphan Buri Farmers Council President Phrom Boonmachuay, who said that a root cause of the scheme is corruption and lack of transparency, and urge that pledging and release of rice stocks be made transparent, open, and competitive.
Sustainably benefit poor farmers, but let the market work.
Burin Kantabutra
