Thailand to revamp farmers' income guarantee scheme

The National Economic and Social Development Board plans to revise its scheme to ensure fair income for farmers who grow rice, tapioca and corn after a series of problems occurred last year.

The most pressing concerns are determining the best time to begin the project so that it best supports products entering the market, allowing farmers to request subsidies during the harvest season, and getting accurate information from participating farmers in terms of land ownership verification and calculating of the yield rate per arable unit.

Better publicity of the price pledging programme will be included in the plan to ensure that farmers have a better understanding of the project, so that they can make the best decisions.

About 400,300 corn farmers have registered for the income-guarantee programme, with the number exceeding the government's expectations. About 88% of corn farmers who have applied requested subsidies that would cost the government nearly THB5.3 billion (US$160 million).

So far, the government has paid out THB20.75 billion (US$626 million) in subsidies under the income-guarantee programme.