The problem intensified when farmers from central Thailand submitted a letter to the government urging quick action to resolve the crisis. In response, Prime Minister Paeton Shinawatra, who had just returned from Switzerland, said Pichai had an emergency meeting with Agriculture Minister Narumon Pinyosinwat to discuss the matter.
Later that evening, Pichai chaired a meeting of the National Rice Policy and Management Commission Marketing Subcommittee, who approved three measures to assist farmers:
●Delayed second planting loan
●6% mill operator interest rate compensation, and
● Set up a rice purchase point to be higher than the market price of 300 baht per ton. The measures are budgeted at 1.893 billion baht and will be submitted to the National Rice Policy Committee for approval next week.
Jaroensilp, president of the Thai Farmers and Agriculture Association, said the current measures did not meet the urgent needs of protesting farmers. Furthermore, these measures provide open opportunities for policy corruption and are not fully prepared for institutions involving the program.
The association calls for a return to rice price guarantee, with rice with a moisture content of less than 15% at least THB 12,000, while rice with a moisture content of less than 25% at least THB 10,000 per ton.
The fall in rice prices is still the government's hot potatoes and is unlikely to be easily resolved because the government's position is different from that of the farmers. If the government does not meet the farmers' demands, it could become a time bomb for the Thai party, facing the potential for farmers' protests.
However, whether it is the government's relief of farmers' difficulties or the farmers' requirements for policy resuming income guarantees, both solutions are only “temporary solutions” and cannot solve the root cause of the problem.
In the past, problem solving often involved the provision of assistance or compensation, which was funded primarily by the budget without addressing the underlying cause. It must be admitted that Thai rice faces challenges, including high production costs, lower yields per RAI compared to competing countries, volatility in market mechanisms, fluctuations in rice prices and the fact that importers do not need Thai rice varieties, and Other factors. .
This year, it is estimated that rice production will reach 3.3-3.4 billion tons, or 23 million tons of white rice, with an export target of 7.5 million tons.
It is time to seriously address the problem of Thai rice, not just to provide a superficial solution. Otherwise, if the problem of falling rice prices would become a time bomb for the Thai government if it was in power full-time.
