Under growing pressure from farmers, the government has undertaken to extend its mortgage programme for off-season rice, currently set to end next month.

The National Rice Policy Committee will meet today to consider the extension and the amount of paddy to be mortgaged, following a directive from the cabinet yesterday.

About 50 farmers from Kanchanaburi province rallied yesterday at Government House, demanding the cabinet extend the mortgage period beyond July.

The protesting farmers said they would leave only when their demand is met.

As they have produced more rice this year, they said the current deadline creates difficulties for them.

On Tuesday, about 300 rice farmers from three districts in Chiang Rai blockaded Phahon Yothin Road after rice mills rejected their crops. The mills said their mortgage quota is already completed.

The government implemented the first round of the rice mortgage programme to buy 2.5 million tonnes of paddy, including 100,000 to 200,000 tonnes of glutinous grain, in the second-crop season between March 16 and July 31, at a cost of 36 billion baht. The guaranteed price is 11,800 baht per tonne.

In late April the government then agreed to buy an additional 1.5 million tonnes of paddy in the second crop.
Procurement of unprocessed rice may now be between 3.5 million and 4 million tonnes in the current season.

Second-crop paddy output this season could be more than 8 million tonnes of paddy, compared with 6.5 million last year, said the Agriculture Ministry.

The cabinet yesterday also approved guidelines for selling rice, tapioca and maize in state stockpiles, said Deputy Prime Minister Korbsak Sabhavasu.

The guidelines call for the Foreign Trade Department to devise a marketing strategy while the Public Warehouse Organisation (PWO) would handle the quality of the crops in stock.

The Commerce Ministry, meanwhile, has been directed to hire professional surveyors to check stocks at all state warehouses before selling to private bidders on a warehouse basis.

Yanyong Phuangrach, director-general of the Internal Trade Department, said the guidelines - particularly regarding quality inspection - might increase costs. For rice alone, there are now more than 500 authorised warehouses. Inspection would take one or two months and might affect prices, he said.

"Inspections should cover some warehouses at random, not all," he said.

Source: Bangkok Post