The Cabinet yesterday approved a Bt435.54-billion budget for the rice-pledging scheme as part of its policy to subsidise about 25 million tonnes of paddy rice this year.

Of the total budget, Bt90 billion will be provided by the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives and Bt320 billion by the Finance Ministry.

About Bt410 billion of the total would be needed to set up a revolving fund to promote mortgaging, stocking and quality improvement of rice. The scheme will run from October 7 to February.

The pledging prices for paddy vary from Bt20,000 for jasmine rice, Bt15,000 for white rice, Bt14,800 for 5-per-cent white rice, Bt14,600 for 10-per-cent white rice and Bt14,200 for 15-per-cent white rice to Bt13,800 for 25-per-cent white rice.

Prices

The pledging price for provincial fragrant rice is set at Bt18,000, for Pathum Thani rice at Bt16,000, for short-grain sticky rice at Bt16,000 and for long-grain sticky rice at Bt15,000.

However, the private sector is still caught in a conflict, since millers fully support the pledging scheme while exporters have come out against the policy.

After the first meeting of government officials, farmers, millers and exporters to set up the Rice Board, a source from the millers said they were upset with the meeting as the panel named Pornsilp Patcharintanakul, the vice chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, as the chairman.

And at the meeting, he supported the exporters' ideas.

"Rice exporters have a clear agenda on opposing the pledging project. Instead of discussing development of Thai rice production, the discussion has only focused on the objections to the pledging programme, such as it has destroyed the market mechanism and would harm exports," the source said.

Sustainability

Both the pledging and income-guarantee projects have some weaknesses, the source said. The current government should limit the volume of rice entering the scheme, as it would cause overspending by the government.

The rice panel is aimed at ensuring sustainable development of production and trading of the grain. It will propose to the government that it release rice stocks transparently.

The board will also propose a long-term plan for the government to hammer out a national rice strategy during the meeting of the chamber by the end of this year

Source: The Nation