RICE SUBSIDIES OF $1 BILLION LAST WEEK
Help for rubber farmers comes after the cabinet last week approved measures worth about US$1 billion to help rice farmers, including grants and an interest rate reduction for farmers from state banks.
The farm subsidies come after much resistance from the military-led government which had vowed upon taking power last year they would end the country's populist subsidies.
But growing criticism from rice and rubber farmers, who have seen their incomes fall following the end of subsidy schemes introduced by the previous government, has forced the junta to make a policy U-turn.