Nevertheless, again by the mid-1980s, commodity prices on the world market were
depressing and the substantial numbers of farmers remaining in agriculture revived very low
incomes. It would not be surprising if the price support programmes did not adequately raise
funds to improve the general level of farm-gate prices for rice. Once again, for instance, in
the case of cassava which is of great concern to the poor small farmers in the Northeast, the
quota system became a source of rent-seeking and rent-dissipation (Siamwalla, 1986;
Siriprachai,1988).