Agriculture Ministry to produce rubber pillows to help farmers
Deputy Agriculture Minister Thammanas Phromphao said on Thursday (Decembeer 19) that he will meet with officials of the Ministry of Finance, the Government Lottery Office and the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BACC) next week to discuss the Pracharat Rubber Pillow project.
“This project aims to produce 30 million rubber pillows valued at Bt18 billion to distribute to poor people nationwide,” he said. “The Marketing Organization for Farmers (MOF) will be responsible for manufacturing the pillows, while the Agriculture Ministry will handle the distribution to people at one pillow per household.”
Thammanas further added that the Bt18 billion fund will be provided by BACC in the form of a loan. He expects the project to start early in 2020 and to help rubber farmers release their products in stock at reasonable prices, as part of the government’s urgent measures to boost the grassroots economy.
“To pay back the loan, I will propose to the Cabinet that MOF holds charity lotteries for the public around early 2021, which should raise enough money to pay back the principal as well as interest to the BACC,” said Thammanas. “The Government Lottery Office will responsible for the issuance of lottery tickets, which could be branded ‘help rubber farmers’ to attract buyers who want to try their luck for a good cause.”