The government is planning to launch its rice-pledging programme for an initial volume of 8 million tonnes of paddy rice.
A Commerce Ministry source said yesterday that the government would call a meeting of the National Rice Policy Committee next month to draw up a plan for the scheme, which was one of its electioncampaign planks.
The meeting will concentrate on fixing the target price and mortgage conditions for the main harvest coming up.
Initially, the government targets 8 million tonnes of paddy rice, for which it promised prices of Bt15,000 for white rice and Bt20,000 for jasmine rice. This will cost the government Bt120 billion in subsidies for the estimated rice output of 22 million tonnes this year.
However, the government will encourage farmers to store more of their crop in their barns instead of pawning it to rice mills.
Source: The Nation
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