The cabinet yesterday gave the nod to 8 billion baht worth of soft loans to encourage farmers in 35 provinces in the Central Plains to grow maize instead of rice during the latter crop's off season.
The scheme aims to prod farmers in those provinces to grow maize on 2 million rai.
According to Nathaporn Chatusripitak, an adviser to Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn, participating farmers will be offered loans via the Bank for Agriculture and Agriculture Cooperatives at an interest rate of 4%.
The government will provide a subsidy for the remaining 3% interest of the bank.
According to Mr Nathaporn, the BAAC's lending programme will be done in steps: 1,800 baht per rai for five months for farmers to prepare land, seed and fertilisers; 1,200 baht per rai to support fertilisers; and 1,000 baht per rai to support the harvest.
The scheme starts immediately and runs until next June.
In a related development, the cabinet yesterday approved just over 383 million baht to assist farmers in 19 provinces in the central plains in growing Crotalaria juncea, also known as brown hemp or sunn hemp, aiming at 200,000 rai of farmland.
Sunn hemp is a tropical Asian plant of the legume family. It is widely grown as a source of green manure, fodder and lignified fibre obtained from its stem.
Sunn hemp is also being looked at as a potential biofuel. On the downside, it can be invasive and has been listed as a noxious weed in some jurisdictions.
The government pledged to buy 6,000 tonnes of sunn hemp seeds for 20 baht per kilogramme.
The project starts immediately and runs until next May.
According to Kobsak Phutrakul, vice-minister in the Prime Minister's Office, the cabinet yesterday also approved a draft financial development plan for communities, with the purpose of narrowing income disparity and promoting savings. The plan will run from 2017 to 2021.
The development plan calls for empowering all communities to create jobs, increase access to funding sources, reduce household debt and end reliance on loan sharks.