The Prime Minister confirms that the government will take a new approach to guarantee fair crop prices for farmers. The current mortgage scheme will be replaced as it has benefited only 20 per cent of the farmers.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said, during his weekly TV program on NBT, that the idea of price guarantee scheme for agricultural products is a sound alternative to the existing mortgage scheme.

Last season's mortgaged corn, tapioca and rice from the previous harvest is expected to cost the government 35 billion baht of loss. He revealed that only 20 per cent of farmers benefit from the existing mortgage practice and promised a new alternative from which all farmers will benefit.

Regarding the off-season rice mortgage scheme, Commerce Minister Pornthiwa Nakasai revealed it will begin in 47 provinces this week. Following teh rice policy committee's approval to extend the rice quota to two million tons, Pornthiwa assured that the quota will be distributed fairly.

She expected that over the next week or two, there might be additional quotas allotted to the provinces where rice quotas will be quickly met. The calculation of the quotas given to each province is based on a database of production volume collected by the Office of Agricultural Economics. The additional quotas are intended to serve farmers whose rice has yet to be bought under the scheme.

The rice quota distributed to the provinces makes up 70 per cent of the total amount of rice under the mortgage scheme, which totals two million tons. The rest, 30 per cent is being called the 'emergency quota' and is reserved for provinces where rice quotas are not filled up.

Source: TANN