Thailand turns back agriculture subsidies
The Thai government has recently approved to roll out farming subsidies worth over 1.3 billion USD, mostly to support the rice and rubber industries.
Illustrative image (Source: AFP)The policies would help the country better than the previous government’s policy, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha told reporters on November 5.
The government pledged to abolish the farming subsidy programme applied by the previous administration. However, 17 months after Prayut took office, incomes in rural areas where over 34 million people live were affected due to a decline in global food prices and weak export. Farmers called for the return of subsidies.
Last week, the government adopted measures worth 1 billion USD to help rice farmers and a subsidy package worth 365 million USD for rubber growers.
The former government’s rice subsidy programme, which bought rice at an above market price, was enormously popular among farmers but very expensive, leaving Thailand with vast piles of unsold stock. It cost the budge around 14 billion USD.
Former Yingluck Shinawatra also splashed out 620 million USD on building rubber storages under the subsidy programme. In January, she was accused of neglecting the rice scheme, resulting in disorder market.-VNA
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