Hundreds of thousands of farm workers left jobless because of drought: NESDB

NESDB secretary general Pormetee Vimolsiri revealed yesterday that the number of employed people in the sector last year fell to 12.27 million from 12.73 million the year before.
He said the government should aid this sector, in particular in the first half of the year.
Any drop in fuel prices would exacerbate the problem confronting farmers, he added.
Porametee said farmers struggled to change to change to other work or jobs because of their advanced age in most cases, while about 70 per cent had only a primary school education.
 “The government will have to take care of these people by giving them training courses for other occupations or financial aid,” he said.
He said the government needed to stop the lower income earners from accessing loan sharks.
An employment survey found that the country’s employment rate was down 0.2 per cent last year on the year.
The agricultural sector’s employment rate dropped 3.6 per cent while the rate for the non-agricultural sector rose 1.6 per cent in line with an expansion of the economies of the industrial, construction and tourism sectors.
That reflected a migration of labours from the agricultural sector to other sectors because of the drought, Porametee said.
However, he said the lack of education and advancing age of most farm workers meant switching to other sectors with high wages was not a possibility.
That meant most are unlikely to make more money than they did on the land, he said.
Today is the start date for a drought relief operation by the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry, Defence Ministry, and Interior Ministry in the drought risk area in 76 districts of 28 provinces countrywide, as Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Petipong Pungbun Na Ayudhya revealed earlier.
General Patthamapong Prathompat, assistant to the Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister, stated that the ministry has ordered the Bureau of Royal Rainmaking and Agricultural Aviation to make rain to relieve the drought situation and increase the water in the reservoirs starting from yesterday.
Patthamapong said that there were total of 30 rainmaking aircraft to seed clouds in the drought-affected areas in the 25 main river basins.
“The Rainmaking Rapid Deployment Force will be set up for this year’s rainmaking operation and the command centres will be established in every part of the country, so it is certain that the farmers will receive help from the ministry,” he said.
Defence Minister General Prawit Wongsuwon stated that the army will also take part in drought relief operations and will provide drinking water to each drought-affected area. Army engineers have already worked with the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry to dig wells and ponds, of which are already 60 per cent complete.