The government has seven days to reconsider its decision to slash the paddy pledging ceiling price to 12,000 baht a tonne, Thai Farmers Association president Wichian Phuanglamchiak has warned.
He said representatives of the association and farmers from 22 provinces in the Central region will submit a letter to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on Tuesday at Government House to ask her to reconsider the price cut.
Mr Wichian said if the government ignores their demand after seven days, rice farmers from across the country will travel on farm trucks to Bangkok to pressure the government.
Farmers nationwide wanted the government to maintain the original ceiling price at 15,000 baht a tonne until the pledging programme for the current crop ends on Sept 15, he said.
A special cabinet meeting on Wednesday agreed to slash the pledging price for the second crop in 2013 from 15,000 to 12,000 baht a tonne, as proposed by the National Rice Policy Committee (NRPC).
The reduction in the pledging price for the current crop will take effect from June 30 while each farming household is eligible to be paid a maximum of 500,000 baht, effective Thursday.
Mr Wichian said the reduction was proposed by the NRPC which has no representatives who are farmers.
Farmers who are the stakeholders should have been given a say in the decision-making, he said.
He said farmers will still not receive the full 12,000-baht pledging price because deductions can be made from the price to account for excessive moisture content.
But the 12,000-baht price would be acceptable if the full price has no moisture content deductions, Mr Wichian said.
Prime Minister Yingluck said Thursday the government will go ahead with the rice-pledging scheme.
She said she had assigned ministers, the NRPC and provincial governors nationwide to explain the reasoning behind the price cut to farmers.
The decision was based on the changing prices of rice on the world market.
The price reduction was also intended to maintain a balanced budget and fiscal discipline.
"But if world prices adjust positively, the government is willing to change prices in accordance with price mechanisms to ensure flexibility," Ms Yingluck said.
She said she will instruct the NRPC to consider a proposal by farmers for the ceiling price to be cut to 13,500 a tonne instead of 12,000 baht.
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong Thursday insisted the government has complied with its policy statement delivered to parliament as it had offered a 15,000-baht pledging price under its rice scheme.
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The rice-pledging programme was launched by the Yingluck Shinawatra administration to fulfil its policy promises made during the election campaign in 2011.
But the government has decided to slash the pledging ceiling price to 12,000 baht because prices of rice on the world market have not turned out as the government had expected, he said.
Meanwhile, rice farmers in several provinces were up in arms over the ceiling price cut.
In Suphan Buri province, more than 1,000 farmers from Tha Maka, Tha Muang and Phanom Thuan districts gathered outside the provincial hall to demand the government maintain the 15,000-baht price until the end of the pledging programme for the current crop.
They handed over a letter via deputy provincial governor Kasapol Kaewprapal to ask the prime minister to consider their demand.
Similar rallies were also reported in Ratchaburi and Surin provinces, accusing the government of destroying the scheme which benefits farmers.
Manas Kitprasert, president of the Thai Rice Millers Association, said the Public Warehouse Organisation under the Commerce Ministry has ordered its officials to stop receiving paddy for the pledging scheme, between Thursday and June 30.
Farmers are still working the fields and harvesting the second crop, but they say they will protest in Bangkok next week if the government fails to reverse the rice-purchase cuts. (File photo by Sunthorn Pongpao)