Victims to pledging

Victims to pledging

There is no doubt about it. The rice pledging policy is overwhelmingly popular with rice farmers. Why shouldn't it be? The paddy price offered by the Thai Rice Association is only 10,500 baht a tonne when the price offered by the government is 15,000 baht. The market paddy price for Hom Mali jasmine rice is 15,000 a tonne while it is 20,000 baht from the government.

A rice art project by Greenpeace shows an organic rice field featuring a pattern created by using two different types of rice. Organic rice farmers are facing the threat of bankruptcy because of the government’s rice pledging scheme. ATHIT PERAWONGMETHA

In other words, the government pays the farmers 4,500-5,000 baht a tonne more than market prices. This cost does not include other expenses such as warehouse rent, transportation and rice polishing, to name just a few.

Much has been said about corruption in this programme. Since we still don't know for certain its scale and its severity, the government for now has the opportunity to fix the loopholes.

Last month, a forum was held for people in community rice mills and co-operatives to discuss how they suffer under the rice pledging policy. This is what a rice merchant who once owned the country's biggest paddy market in the upper North said about the rice pledging scheme: "It is like a den of thieves. No one can reveal the dirty business others are doing because they are also involved in it.

"All parties work together as fellow thieves so they have to cover one another's backs at every step of the process."

At present, the rice pledging policy is protected by the prevalent public belief that there is corruption in all projects.

An important question we must ask is whether this rice pledging policy can really lift the rice price.

Domestic market prices remain low, and not very different from what they were before Oct 7, 2011, when the rice pledging programme started.

The government never tells us how much money it earns from government-to-government rice deals. If it is making money, the government would boast about it for sure. But what crazy government would buy rice from us when it is dearer than rice which can be found elsewhere on the market?

It is far-fetched to believe the government can dictate the world rice price as the Arab countries do with their oil. But the government still insists it needs to wait at least until 2015 for the programme to bear fruit.

Of late, the government has introduced a new argument, that the rice pledging scheme will at most cost as much as the Democrats' income guarantee programme for rice.

But there's no way the rice pledging policy will cost less than the Democrats' programme because the subsidy per tonne is much higher, not to mention other management costs.

Another explanation is that this is an economic revitalisation scheme to help the long suffering rice farmers. Under this reasoning, the rice pledging scheme is similar to the Democrats' 2,000-baht handouts to voters at large.

Given the fact that the long-neglected farmers deserve some help and the industry has received tax-free assistance from successive governments for so long, we should be happy the farmers will earn high rice prices for another two years.

But the government should not ignore the fact that its policy has seriously hurt community rice mills and co-operatives. They are closing down one by one because they cannot afford to buy rice at the same price as the government which is now monopolising the rice industry.

These community mills and co-operatives came into existence with state support to solve the problem of rice price fluctuation. All the resources put into these co-operatives will now go to waste as community mills will soon be abandoned.

These community mills are also closely linked with farmers who produce high-quality rice such as organic rice. When the market price for Hom Mali rice was previously 15,000 baht a tonne, the mills bought it at 17,000-18,000 baht. But with the government offering the farmers 20,000 baht, the community mills can no longer compete.

The Kud Chum community rice mill in Yasothon which specialises in organic rice is one of the most established. Its milling capacity is 60 tonnes a day. It used to have 600 organic rice farmers as members. Now only 379 remain. The rest have turned to chemical farming to sell their rice to the government.

Farmers in irrigated areas have also turned to fast-growing rice to increase crops. It does not matter what rice varieties they are growing. It does not matter how poor the rice quality is because they get the same price anyway.

Rice quality is important. Encouraging farmers to increase rice quality has been the government's policy for the past 20-30 years. Organic rice farming has also been included in many national development plans. But the rice pledging programme is destroying organic rice farming.

The villagers have told me that organic rice farming is now merely a way to produce beautifully packaged rice to be sold as gifts. The quantity involved is very small and organic rice farming with its ecological aspects has been cut off from the farmers' way of life.

Community mills are also used as a tool for farmers to increase their bargaining power with middlemen. This is also a crucial aspect of rice farming. The rice pledging programme, however, has undermined the farmers' organisations and bargaining power. No one can deny the rice pledging policy has increased the farmers' overall income. But do they have to choose one or the other?

If the Pheu Thai Party wants to complete its three-year programme to boost the rice price and control the rice market, it should fix the problems it has inflicted on community rice mills and organic rice farming.

The government should consider offering a higher price for organic rice, or pay the price difference through the rice mills that buy organic rice. It should also include community rice mills in its rice pledging programme.

Over the long term, the government should pay attention to rice quality to increase the competitiveness of Thai rice. Unfortunately, rice quality has never been this government's concern.


Prapas Pintobtaeng is assistant professor in political science, Chulalongkorn University.

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