Thailand’s farmers are (a) a new era in their relationship with the market and
the government, (b) decades of crop-pledging and price-support programmes give way
to a new regime that is expected to be fairer to everyone and far less costly to tax payers.
The new price (c) scheme represents income support paid (d) to farmers.
Payments will be based on the (e) between insured prices and benchmark prices,
regardless of the (f) prices farmers receive when they sell their crop.
Farmers are being (g) to participate in the programme based on their historical
production. They will manage their own sales (h) in terms of when to capitalize on
the spread between the insured prices and the benchmark prices. (i) will be
transferred directly to farmers by the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives once
crop prices (j) below benchmarks. The government has (k) about 43 billion baht
from Thai Khem Kaeng (l) budget to support this programme for three key crops which
are paddy, maize and cassava.
(Excerpted and adapted from the article on Agriculture & Food, Economic Review, Year-End
2009, Bangkok Post)