Floods over much of the Chao Phraya River basin put a damper on the first day of the government's rice pledging scheme, with sluggish activity reported countrywide due to widespread severe flooding.

In this northern provincial seat, with farms under water, only one farmer appeared with one tonne of paddy rice having almost a 30 per cent humidity level -- to trade for Bt8,000 cash at a local rice mill.

In the northern province of Phichit, seven rice mills are ready to receive mortgaged paddy, but no farmers at all have participated in the programme, as half a million rai of rice fields are flooded.

In the Northeast, Yasothorn province is also quiet, as farmers cannot harvest their crop and some rice has been lost to flooding. However, Yasothorn’s Internal Trade office predicted that local paddy rice production would hit the market in late October and join the mortgage scheme in early November.

The northeastern province of Buri Ram also experienced a sluggish atmosphere on the opening day of the rice plan, with civil servants monitoring rice mills and staffing a 24-hour checkpoint to prevent rice smuggling from neighbouring countries.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra presided at the opening ceremony of the operations centre of the Centre for the Government Agricultural Products Pledging Policy, which also started Thursday.

Located at the Ministry of Commerce's Internal Trade Department, the centre was set up for farmers to benefit from the government scheme, using a real-time processing system for detailed analysis of the rice situation nationwide.

Ms Yingluck said the centre includes other pledged farm produce such as cassava and corn for animal feed to prevent corruption.

Meanwhile, Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Theera Wongsamut said the number of farmers registering for the in-season rice plan in 2011/2012 reached over 3,260,000 households covering an area of nearly 60 million rai of farmland.

Certificates for farmers to take part in the scheme were already issued to almost 460,000 households.

Mr Theera said his ministry forecast rice produce of 25.8 million tonnes from registered farmers, with at least 3.1 million tonnes predicted to be damaged from flooding, resulting in only 22.73 million tonnes of rice to be pledged.

He said the Cabinet on Tuesday agreed to allow the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Co-operatives (BAAC) to provide some Bt3.8 billion to the Marketing Organisation for Farmers for initial rice mortgage until the government's 2012 budget is approved.

One hundred and sixty rice mills in 21 provinces nationwide have joined the rice pledging scheme, Mr Theera said,  40 rice mills in three northern provinces, 55 in five northeastern provinces, four in three eastern provinces, and 61 in 10 central provinces.

About 50 rice mills countrywide have been approved by the provincial authorities to contract with the Marketing Organization for Farmers.

Source: MCOT online news