The government is committed to ramping up the rice megafarm scheme this year, for which it provides soft loans, machinery and agricultural equipment to farmers in order to cut production costs and raise productivity. The scheme will cover 1.05 million rai of related farmland.
Chutima Bunyapraphasara, the newly-appointed Deputy Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister, said the rice megafarm scheme will be developed and run this year on three different farming models based on different geographical locations and demand from participating farmers.
The megafarm project implemented last year entails participating farmers pooling their rice farmland together into one large plot, after which modern equipment, including harvesting machinery, is deployed.
Participating farmers can borrow up to 5 million baht at 0.01% interest from the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC), while the Commerce Ministry is responsible for the marketing and sales of the rice and finding buyers.
Acting as a group, participating farmers can negotiate for better access to markets and financial resources such as loans. This grouping and joint management is intended to ensure efficiency in the entire rice business -- from planning to farming and marketing to distribution.
Last August, the cabinet approved 3.25 billion baht worth of lending packages via the BAAC for megafarm projects for 2017-19.
The Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry signed a memorandum of understanding with the Commerce Ministry last September and the Interior Ministry to promote the megafarm scheme.
Last year, there were 381 rice megafarms spanning 940,000 rai. A total of 63,000 farmers participated in the scheme.
The ministry aims to expand the scheme to 426 rice megafarms this year covering 1.05 million rai, with the number of participating farmers coming to 72,142. Officials are reviewing incentives to entice more farmers to take part.
"The megafarm scheme this year will run largely on three farming models: traditional farming, but with better marketing and farm management methods or the so-called Model 2.0; farming that uses basic technology and grows mainly premium rice to be supplied as raw materials to various industries to make products with added value (Model 3.0); and farming that applies advanced technology such as GPS satellite, soil improvement and agriculture drones for spraying fertiliser and pesticides to reduce production costs and produce innovative products (Model 4.0)," she said. "But for Model 4.0, we may need to find and attract interested investors."
Ms Chutima, a former permanent secretary for the Commerce Ministry, said the ministry will also focus this year on more actively promoting food safety and security and good agricultural practices (GAP) in the farm sector.
"One of the ministry's top priorities this year is to promote the proliferation of GAP so that we can declare to the world in the future that Thailand is a supplier of safe agricultural products such as vegetables to the world," said Ms Chutima. "Although chemicals are used while farming, it requires a long-enough period before harvesting and the residue levels must be at a tolerable rate. This, once achieved, will lead Thailand to the next step of development: chemical-free farming and ultimately organic farming."
In tandem with the farming developments, she said Thailand needs to create better understanding among consumers about the differences between safe agricultural products and organic ones, how to choose their items and their willingness to pay more for safe and high-quality products.
"And one of the key focuses this year for the ministry is to partner with the Agricultural Research Development Agency, which handles research and development in Thailand's agricultural sector, to optimise existing research to grow more crops demanded by the market," she said.
Suthep Kongmak, president of the Thai Agriculturist Association, hailed the government-initiated megafarm scheme, saying the grouping helps reduce production costs, significantly boosts productivity and raises bargaining power.
But Mr Suthep said the association, which boasts 40,000 farmers in 47 provinces, only took to the megafarm scheme in 2015/16. Participating farms account for 60,000 rai, mainly to grow hom mali, white rice and Pathum Thani fragrant rice.
This year, the association aims to increase the amount of farmland used in the scheme by another 40,000 rai.
"But our association's participating farmers have not registered with the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry, as we don't want to borrow any money, which will increase their debt," he said. "More importantly, the ministry stipulates conditions that require us to not only form a group and register as community enterprises to be eligible for soft loans from the BAAC, but we also have to file our projects with the Tambon, District and Provincial Agricultural Extension Office for approval. That sounds inconvenient."