THE government is pushing for a comprehensive set of long-term measures to reduce the rice acreage and promoting alternative crops to prevent a repeat of the current rice price slump.
Both short-term and long-term measures will be discussed at a second special meeting today of the National Rice Policy Committee, which will be chaired by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, as the government is under pressure to help rice farmers hit hard by a record low paddy prices.
Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives Ministry permanent secretary Thirapat Prayoonsithi, who yesterday held a meeting of senior agriculture officials, said the ministry would implement proactive measures to encourage farmers to grow alternative cash crops along with rice in a bid to reduce the overall rice acreage.
At present, the first annual rice crop yields about 23 million tonnes of paddy, while the second crop yields another 8 million tonnes. But the government is aiming to halve the second crop, to just 4 million tonnes, to prevent an oversupply of milled rice. (A tonne of paddy usually yields about two- thirds of a tonne of milled rice).
Domestic consumption is now about 10 million tonnes of milled rice, while annual exports range from 8-10 million tonnes.
Industry sources have said the current price slump stemmed from an oversupply due to the previous government’s massive rice pledging scheme. This left the government with a large amount of rice in state warehouses – over 8 million tonnes, way over the 2-3 million tonnes usually seen before the Yingluck Shinawatra regime’s unprecedented pledging scheme.
According to the Agriculture Ministry, both short-term and long-term measures are required to solve rice farmers’ problems. So, officials will have to convince community leaders to get farmers to plant more diverse cash crops, such as sorghum, mung beans, maize and sugar cane, to reduce dependence on the rice crop, as too much rice has lead to low prices. Farmers will also have to improve the quality of farmland for other cash crops.

Short-term measures
For short-term measures, the Commerce Ministry aims to tackle the rice price slump with various measures while the Agriculture Ministry will work with other agencies to buy rice directly from farmers for packaging and retail sales.
Suriyasai Katasila, deputy rector of Rangsit University’s College of Social Innovation, said the government should use this opportunity to reform the agriculture sector with a 20-year national strategy, as the rice management system should be strengthened so it can no longer be manipulated by politicians.
Suriyasai said it could not be denied that the current plunge in the price of rice was caused by the government’s over-stocking of rice, which was a consequence of the previous government’s pledging scheme. So, former PM Yingluck and her Pheu Thai Party should accept this, rather than making “dramatic” reactions to the farmers’ plight.
Meanwhile, former Pheu Thai MP Amnuay Klangpa urged the government to speed up its subsidy scheme, as it had yet to reach farmers in Lop Buri, which is his political stronghold.
“These farmers will have a lot |of rice paddy soon and they still have to sell it to rice mills at |low prices. They rely on wet-season rice farming. Without help, their lives will be badly affected,” he said.
In Phichit in the Central region, farmers have started to sell their Hom Mali rice directly to consumers to avoid the low price offered by middle men. This has meant they can get as much as Bt35 per kilo or Bt35,000 per tonne, as Hom Mali fetches a higher price than normal white rice, which is now bringing just Bt5,000-6,000 per tonne of paddy or Bt5-6 per kilo.
Jamras Sua-dee, a Phichit farmer, said his 35 rai of farmland had suffered because the price of paddy had dropped from Bt9,000 to Bt10,000 per tonne last year to a record low, so many farmers had started to get their rice milled to sell it directly to consumers to get a better return.
In Kalasin in the Northeast, authorities said they are ready to implement the government’s latest measure to help farmers by offering a loan for rice paddy at Bt13,000 per tonne so farmers don’’t have to sell the crop now and can wait for prices to go up.
The Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives said it will offer the loan at an interest rate of 4 per cent per annum to give farmers an option to hold on to their paddy until the domestic price rises.
Many government and private sector units, including provincial army units, have also bought rice directly from farmers for their own consumption in a bid to help shore up the domestic rice price.