Fair deal for rice farmers
While a fierce debate is raging over whether the government's rice subsidy is more effective than the rice-pledging policy initiated by the Yingluck Shinawatra administration, at least the cash giveaways have proved a better method of passing on subsidies to needy farmers.
About 60% of the government's 40-billion-baht handout has been given to farmers in the Northeast and upper North who are poorer than those in other regions, said Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) president Luck Wajananawat.
In comparison, a mere 20% of money spent on the rice-pledging scheme was distributed to farmers in the Northeast and upper North.
"This reflects money is flowing to small farmers who really deserve to receive assistance as they can grow only one crop a year. In the pledging scheme, most money was concentrated on farmers who live in areas with irrigation systems. A lot of farmers live in Isan but they got less," Mr Luck told the Bangkok Post.
According to the state-backed farm bank's data, each farmer in the Northeast received around 50,000 baht a year from selling five tonnes of paddy on average to the pledging scheme, five times less than those in the Central region.