Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has called on farmers not to simply rely on the government's financial aid, saying the state coffers must be used to take care of people nationwide.
Gen Prayut was speaking after chairing the National Rice Policy Committee's (NRPC) meeting, which decided Monday to spend an additional 18 billion baht on a fresh subsidy scheme for farmers growing rice other than the hom mali variety.
The government last week launched a subsidy scheme worth more than 20 billion baht to help hom mali farmers suffering from falling rice prices in the North and Northeast, sparking anger among farmers from other parts of the country who grow different strains, yet who want equal treatment.
Gen Prayut said the government is placing emphasis on helping farmers suffering from tumbling rice prices without discrimination. However, the government cannot afford to use all the state's money to help farmers.
Farmers must cooperate with the government to rethink their methods, such as changing crops or using more sustainable and self-sufficient methods in a bid to be less reliant on the government.
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"In the past, we only solved the problem at the downstream level, mainly via price subsidies, which has has made farmers reliant on these programmes. This has led to difficulty in tackling the real underlying problems," said Gen Prayut.
"This government is focused on upstream, where several issues must be fine-tuned, including changing rice cultivation practices and the use of water, downsizing farmland, farm zoning and reducing farm costs."
Gen Prayut said any help people can offer farmers to sell their rice at decent prices is welcome.
"If they do this with good intentions, that would be a blessing."
An official of the Science and Technology Ministry demonstrates a rice-milling machine developed for households and small communities. It is capable of de-husking between 38-70 kilogrammes of rice an hour.
His remarks came after former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra on Thursday visited the northeastern provinces of Ubon Ratchathani and Surin, where she bought rice from farmers despairing about falling prices. She resold the grain at a shopping mall on Saturday.
The cabinet will decide today whether to approve the new 18-billion-baht subsidy scheme to help farmers amid the price slump.
Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn said the scheme is concerned with the 2016/17 harvest of white rice paddy and Pathum Thani fragrant rice.
She said farmers would receive a total of 10,500 baht per tonne of white rice paddy for storing their rice in barns for a designated period. About 661,885 growers are expected to join the programme.
Of this, 7,000 baht per tonne will be paid by the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC), plus 1,500 baht for storage costs and 2,000 baht for harvesting and quality improvement.
For Pathum Thani fragrant rice farmers, they will each receive a total of 11,300 baht per tonne; 91,208 growers are expected to join the scheme.
The BAAC will pay 7,800 baht per tonne to farmers, who will also receive 1,500 baht for storage costs and 2,000 baht for harvesting quality improvement costs.
Ms Apiradi said most of the farmers who grow these two kinds of rice are in the Central Plains.
As for those who do not have barns, the government will encourage growers in the Central Plains to contact agriculture cooperatives in their areas for ways to store rice, said the minister.
Unlike farmers in the Northeast, most of the rice farmers in the Central Plains have no barns for storing rice because they usually sell their rice immediately after harvest.
Also Monday, , the Revenue Department (RD) dismissed reports it would examine transaction records of rice mills going back three years.
Citing the RD's order announced on Friday, RD director-general Prasong Pontaneat said the agency only asked its staff to examine quantities and prices of rice bought and sold by millers from Oct 1 this year.
This came after the RD found that the volume of rice sold by millers was lower than the figure published in the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry's records.
The RD will also ask millers to improve their system of recording rice trades, Mr Prasong added.
"There will be no tracing back for three years as reported in some media," he said.
Meanwhile, army and administrative officers inspected rice mills in Muang and Satuk districts of Buri Ram province in an effort to prevent them from exploiting farmers.
President of the Thai Agriculturist Association, Suthep Kongmak, said that representatives of rice growers will travel to Government House to express their gratitude to the prime minister and the government for helping farmers.
The visit is likely to take place next week, he said.
"The paddy prices under the subsidy scheme are at an acceptable level. The cost of rice cultivation is now at 4,600-4,800 baht per rai," said Mr Suthep.
Sharing farms would be one answer to farming more efficiently, Mr Suthep said, as it would reduce the cultivation cost from 4,800 baht per rai to 3,200 baht.
Meanwhile, the maize policy and management committee on Monday agreed on a measure to stall imports of wheat, which hinders the domestic purchase of maize, a Commerce Ministry source said.
The move came after maize and cassava growers expressed concerns over the impact of increasing imports of wheat on the prices of maize and tapioca chips, which continue to drop.
The meeting also discussed ways to help maize growers who have no documents certify their land rights, the source said.
