FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
nationthailand

'Subsidy bill for rice, cassava now Bt300 bn'

'Subsidy bill for rice, cassava now Bt300 bn'

Farm subsidies under the government's crop-pledging schemes have cost the nation close to Bt300 billion so far, according to a state-run bank.

 

Luck Wajananawat, president of the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC), said yesterday that as of July 10, the BAAC had spent Bt118.44 billion to buy 6.97 million tonnes of unmilled rice from 1.14 million farmers under the rice-pledging scheme. The bank has had this rice milled and has transferred the 4.06 million tonnes of white rice to government warehouses, he said.
The scheme for the first crop of 2011/2012 started in October last year and will end by July 31.
The bank also bought paddy rice under the subsidy scheme for a second rice crop, starting this March and due to end October 31, for Bt139.46 billion. So far 885,933 farmers have joined the scheme with 9.56 million tonnes of unmilled rice.
The BAAC has milled amounts of this rice and transferred 3.93 million tonnes of it to state-run warehouses, he said.
The bank also provided Bt39.29 billion for 216,785 cassava farmers to shore up prices of cassava roots.
As of July 10, the total farm subsidy for rice and cassava roots was Bt285.30 billion, said Luck.
Economists and rice exporters have strongly objected to the rice subsidy scheme, arguing that government buying of rice at the high price of Bt15,000 per tonne distorts the market, causing Thailand to lose rice exports to Vietnam and other rice producers.
nationthailand